2  "I  OD,  RELIGION,  AND  IMMORTALITY: 

4  " 

5 


AN  ORATION, 


DELIVERED  AT  THE  PAINE  CELEBRATION  IN  CINCINNATI, 

SUNDAY,  JANUARY  29,  1860. 

•<•  •  - 
V 

BY    JOSEPH    TREAT. 


Beware  when  the  great  God  lets  loose  a  thinker  on  this  planet. 
Then  all  things  are  at  risk — EMEKSON. 


CINCINNATI,  O. 

PUBLISHED     BY     THE     COMMITTEE. 


CENTRAL  PRINTING  OFFICE,  COUNER  FIFTH  SXUEET  AND  CENTRAL  AVENUE. 

1860. 


UCSB  LIBRARY 


GOD,  RELIGION,  AND  IMMORTALITY 

AN  ORATION, 

• 
DELIVERED  AT  THE  PAINE  CELEBRATION  IN  CINCINNATI, 

SUNDAY,  JANUARY  29,  1860. 

BY    JOSEPH    TREAT. 


"  Beware  when  the  great  God  lets  loose  a  thinker  on  this  planet. 
Then  all  things  are  at  risk." — EMERSON. 


CINCINNATI,  O. 

PTBLISHED     BY     THE     COMMITTEE. 


CENTRAL  PRINTING  OFFICE,  CORNER  FIFTH  STREET  AND   CENTRAL  AVENUE. 

1860. 


ORA/ITO!^. 


MY  BROTHERS,  I  am  afraid  you  will  be  disappointed.  I  have  not  come 
to  praise  Thomas  Paine,  but  to  be  Thomas  Paine — to  go  as  far  beyond 
this  age,  as  he  went  beyond  his  age — and  then  to  go  as  much  beyond 
him,  as  he  did  beyond  others.  I  have  come  to  be  Thomas  Paine  to 
Thomas  Paine.  I  have  come  to  supersede  the  Age  of  Reason  ! 

Be  brave  enough  to  hear  me.  No  man  has  business  here  to-day  cele- 
brating Thomas  Paine,  whose  heart  does  not  leap  to  make  this  Com- 
memoration a  Funeral — the  Funeral  of  Superstition  :  both  the  Supersti- 
tion Thomas  Paine  exploded,  and  as  much,  the  other  that  he  left.  Even 
if  you  cannot  accept  what  I  utter,  yet  at  least,  let  it  pass  in  at  one  ear 
and  out  at  the  other.  Dare  to  allow  free  discussion  in  America  one  hour  ! 

Be  as  brave  as  Thomas  Paine  !  He  threw  down  his  gauntlet  to  the 
world.  I  but  take  it  up.  He  accepted  no  quarter.  Then  ask  me  to 
give  him  none.  No  more  bid  me  cease  combating  him,  than  he  ever 
ceased  combating  others.  But  follow  on,  while  I  make  a  full  end  of  the 
work  he  commenced — the  Superstition  he  spared  !  Let  two  wrestle  to- 
gether with  none  to  stop  but  the  final  Truth  ! 

Be  as  brave  as  I  am.  Dare  to  hear,  what  I  dare  to  speak  ;  and  dare 
to  let  me  speak,  what  I  dare  to  think.  Expect  what  I  say  to  shock  you, 
subvert  you,  overwhelm  you — but  let  me  say  it.  Hate  what  I  say,  ab- 
hor it,  trample  it — but  give  me  that  right  to  say  it.  This  country  is  not 
worth  a  song,  if  a  man  may  not  utter  his  thought  !  Once  and  for  all,  I 
challenge  you,  Let  a  man  say  what  he  thinks  ! 


THERE  is  NO  GOD  !  God  is  the  first,  great,  eternal  mistake  of  the  Age 
of  Reason  !  God  is  the  grand,  pivotal  mistake  of  all  systems  !  God  is 
the  great  central  Superstition,  round  which  all  other  Superstitions  cling  ! 
God  is  the  sole  foundation  of  Bibles,  Sabbaths,  Churches,  Priesthoods, 
Religions,  Resurrections,  Judgments,  Heavens,  Hells,  Spirits,  Spirit- 
Worlds,  all  !  I  strike  home  at  this  root  ! 

If  there  is  a  God,  men  can  know  it;  but  nobody  does  know  it.  If 
there  is  a  God,  there  must  be  proof  of  the  fact ;  but  there  is  no  proof. 
If  there  is  a  God,  there  is  a  thing  ;  but  there  is  no  thing,  and  there  is 
nothing.  If  there  is  a  God,  what  he  is  makes  men  see  that  he  is ;  but 
they  never  see  anything,  but  always  take  everything  for  granted.  If 
there  is  a  God,  somebody  must  have  produced  some  argument  for  him  ; 
but  nobody  has  ever  produced  one.  And,  if  there  is  a  God,  there  must 
be  somebody  willing  to  appear  as  his  champion,  to  defend  and  substan- 


date  his  existence  ;  but  there  is  not  one  man  in  the  whole  world  who 
dare  do  it !  There  is  not  one  man  in  the  world  who  dare  undertake  to 
prove  the  existence  of  any  such  thing  as  God  !  I  defy  contradiction 
to  any  of  the  statements  I  have  made. 

God,  God,  God — there  is  no  God  till  we  know  what  God  is.  There 
is  no  proof  of  a  God  till  we  know  what  God  is.  It  is  only  what  God  is 
that  shows  he  is,  or  that  there  is  a  God.  God  is  nothing  or  something  ; 
if  nothing,  that  settles  the  whole  <juestion,  he  does  not  exist,  there  is  no 
God.  If  he  is  nothing,  why,  then,  he  is  nothing  !  If  something,  be- 
liever in  the  God,  tell  us  what  that  something  is  !  You  cannot ;  you  do 
not  pretend  to ;  you  never,  even  thought ;  you  only  talk  about  htm  forever; 
without  thinking  at  all — for  all  you  can  say,  he  is  not  anything.  And 
so,  no  man  has  ever  proved  that  he  is  anything.  Not  one  argument — 
that  is  an  argument — in  favor  of  a  God,  has  ever  been  framed  ;  and 
not  one  can  be.  Nobody  has  ever  proved  a  thing,  a  substance,  a  reality — 
something  that  is  something.  Nobody  has  ever  proved  a  he.  God-he, 
and  God-hint,  and  God-his — but  there  cannot  be  any  he,  till  we  know  what 
God  is.  There  cannot  be  anything  till  we  know  what  God  is.  And  God 
is  not  anything.  There  is  no  God  ! 

There  is  no  need  of  a  God  !  There  is  nothing  for  a  God  to  do.  There 
is  no  use  to  put  him,  or  it,  or  nothing,  to.  There  is  no  Universe  for  him 
ever  to  create  I  Talk  about  the  Universe  being  created  !  As  if  every- 
thing started  up  out  of  nothing  !  As  if  it  was  not  always  everything !  And 
talk  about  a  thing  creating  the  Universe  !  Much  more,  what  is  not  a 
thing  !  As  if  the  something  or  nothing  did  not  need  creating  itself,  as 
much  as  the  Universe  ! — This  Universe  is  Eternal.  It  existed  away 
back,  Always.  There  never  was  a  time  when  it  could  have  been  created. 
It  always  was,  Already.  It  never  had  a  beginning.  It  always  was, 
Beforehand.  It  never  came.  It  still,  always  Was,  and  did  not  have  to 
come  !  It  eternally  had  the  Start  of  all  need  to  help  it.  "  Call  for  a 
God  when  there  is  Occasion  for  a  God" — but  the  Eternal  Universe  has 
none  !  And  what  there  is  no  occasion  for,  does  not  exist — and  God 
does  not  exist ! 

There  is  no  room  for  a  God  !  There  is  no  place  where  a  God  could  be. 
People  say  God  is  everywhere,  but  that  is  false  ;  there  is  hut  one  thing 
that  is  everywhere,  and  that  is  the  Universe.  And  that  is  made  up  of 
all  things,  but  all  things  are  not  God  !  And  there  is  no  place  for  God  in 
the  Universe,  for  the  Universe  Jills  that  place,  and  nothing  else  can  be 
there  with  it.  Two  things  cannot  occupy  the  same  place  at  the  same  ' 
time  ;  and  the  Universe  is  everywhere,  and  then  God  must  be  somewhere 
else.  But  there  is  nowhere  else — nothing  but  nowhere  !  And  then  he 
must  be  there  ! — This  Universe  is  Infinite.  There  is  no  such  thing  as 

§etting  beyond  it ;  it  knows  no  stop ;  it  is  as  large  as  Space,  and  it  is 
pace  ;  and  then  there  is  equally,  no  room  for  God  in  it,  nor  outside  of 
it —  there  is  no  Outside,  to  it !     The  Universe  is  everywhere,  and  God  is 
nowhere — not  at  all ! 

There  is  something  better  than  a  God!  Something  is  better  than 
nothing.  A  mote  that  is,  is  more  than  a  God  that  is  not.  Swap  God 
for  the  Universe,  and  you  would  have  made  an  infinite  gain.  But  even, 
•call  God  something — say  that  there  is  a  God — but  yet,  he  cannot  be  any- 


thing  to  the  Universe.  Call  him  a  person,  he — but  yet,  he  is  finite. 
There  is  no  such  thing  as  an  infinite  person.  An  infinite  God,  or  being, 
or  person,  is  a  contradiction  !  A  he  that  is  not  just  so  large,  and  no 
larger,  is  an  impossibility.  And  then  your  God,  give  him  whatever  size 
you  will — even  expand  him  to  fill  a  whole  solar  system — is  yet,  no  larger 
than  that.  He  is  not  in  any  other  solar  system.  And  then  he  is  no 
more  to  this  infinite  Universe,  than  his  own  solar  system  is — he  is  noth- 
ing to  it  !  The  Universe  is  an  Infinite  :  God,  even  if  he  existed,  would 
be  an  infinitesimal ! 

Men  have  never  believed  in  a  God  !  But  they  have  believed  in  Gods — 
as  many  as  there  were  men  believing  !  No  two  men  ever  believed  in  the 
same  God ;  for  no  two  men  ever  made  the  same  God.  It  is  the  men  that 
make  the  Gods,  and  not  the  Gods  that  make  the  men  ;  and  then  the  Gods 
differ  as  much  as  the  men  making  them.  Every  man  makes  his  God  in 
his  own  image,  and  then  there  is  nothing  but  what  he  makes — nothing 
but  the  image  ;  and  so  men  are  simply,  and  truly  enough,  worshipers  of 
images  !  But  all  their  images,  singly  or  together,  do  not  amount,  to  a  Gad  ; 
but  on  the  contrary,  God  has  gone  out  in  their  images.  And  men  have 
believed  in  the  images,  and  in  nothing  else.  If  no  two  men  ever  be- 
lieved in  the  same  God,  then  have  they  not  in  any  God  ;  for  what  they 
believed  in  was  not  a  God.  Men  have  accepted  innumerable  idols,  but 
they  have  never  believed  in  a  God. 

God  is  an  Evil !  He  is  the  Evil  under  wLich  Earth  has  always  been 
groaning !  He  is  mystery  and  terror,  gall  and  wormwood,  hell  and 
devil,  to  the  Children  of  Men  !  He  is  the  grand  Central  Horror,  round 
which  all  other  horrors  cling !  A  Good  God  is  a  contradiction.  Any 
God  dwarfs,  enslaves,  dehumanizes.  A  Man  and  a  God  cannot  live 
in  the  same  Universe  !  There  cannot  be  a  Universe  with  a  God  ;  for 
God  must  be  everything,  and  everything  else,  nothing  !  God  is  the  An- 
nihilation of  Existence  !  God  is  the  Curse  of  Curses  ! 

God  will  be  blotted  out !  It  is  written  in  the  book  of  fate  !  It  is  the 
future  of  this  Planet !  Over  the  whole  extent  of  this  wide,  wide  world — 
among  all  its  unnumbered  millions  of  inhabitants — and  during  almost 
endless  ages  that  shall  roll — there  will  be  no  God  !  God  will  be  lost  out 
of  the  history  of  the  Race.  Eternal  generations  will  come  and  go,  and 
never  hear  of  a  God  :  nor  know  that  ever,  preceding  generations  talked 
about  one  !  God  will  be  swallowed  up  in  an  Infinite  Oblivion!  His 
very  name  will  die  out  of  human  language  ! 

No- God  will  be  the  world's  Millennium  !  Earth  will  be  Heaven,  when 
men  no  longer  have  something  to  call  them  off  from  making  it  so.  The 
Golden  Age  will  be  born,  when  human  beings  can  be  themselves.  The 
Reign  of  Peace  will  commence  with  the  Reign  of  Reason  !  Then  will 
indeed  be  proclaimed  that  everlasting  Gospel,  "Peace  on  earth,  good- 
will to  men,"  when  all  the  dwellers  of  earth  shall  lift  up  their  voice  to- 
gether, and  say  with  a  shout,  "  God  is  dead,  and  we  are  glad  of  it ! ' 

Call  all  I  have  yet  said,  but  the  programme  of  what  I  am  about  to 
say — the  bald  proposition  of  what  I  am  now-to  rationalize  and  illuminate. 
I  wished  to  rouse  your  attention  ;  give  you  the  whole  length  and  breadth 
of  the  subject ;  and  lift  you  to  the  hight  of  this  grand  Argument  ! 


6 

There  is  such  a  thing-  as  Matter.  People  do  not  know  it.  It  is  Matter 
which  disproves  and  annihilates  a  God.  When  men  get  their  eyes  open, 
they  will  see  that  the  whole  issue  has  always  been,  God  versus  Matter  ! 

Matter  is  Everything.  There  is  nothing  but  something,  substance. 
Whatever  exists,  truly  and  solidly,  exists  as  a  material  thing.  The 
whole  Universe  is  Matter,  and  everything  in  the  Universe. 

Matter  is  Infinite.  It  is  everywhere,  as  well  as  everything.  There  is 
the  same  reason  for  its  being  Infinite,  there  is  for  its  being  at  all — for  its 
existing  in  all  places,  there  is  for  ifls  existing  in  any  place.  The  universal 
reason  must  give  a  universal  result.  Why  Matter  is  anywhere,  is  why 
it  is  everywhere. 

Matter  is  Eternal.  It  has  always  existed.  There  is  the  same  reason 
for  its  being  Eternal,  there  is  for  its  being  at  all — 'for  its  existing  always, 
there  is  for  its  existing  now.  The  eternal  reason  must  give  an  eternal 
result.  Why  Matter  is  now,  is  why  it  was  always. 

I  forewarn  you,  Infidel,  beware  !  You  have  already,  fatally  committed 
yourself!  Even  now,  you  have  lost  your  God!  A  God' — any  kind  of 
a  God— is  forever  disposed  of,  by  that  admission  that  Matter  is  Eternal. 
Once  grant  that,  and  you  give  up  all ! 

And  you,  Andrew  Jackson  Davis,  with  all  your  boasted  powers  of 
Clairvoyance,  here  is  the  rock  on  which  you  split !  You,  and  your  whole 
church  of  Spiritual  Believers,  teach  Matter,  Eternal  ;  and  yet,  cling  to 
the  old  God  of  Matter,  Created  !  You  tear  down  with  one  hand,  what 
you  build  up  with  the  other  ! 

For,  to  say  that  Matter  is  Eternal,  is  the  same  as  to  say  that  it  is  Self- 
Existent — and  that  is  to  say  everything  !  For  Self-Existent  Matter  can 
be  and  do,  everything  a  Self-Existent  God  can  ;  and  it  is  and  does  every- 
thing it  can  be  and  do  ;  and  then  it  is  and  does  everything  that  is  and 
that  is  done ;  and  then  God  is  perfectly  headed  off  the  track  of  being 
and  doing  anything  at  all — header/  off  the  track  of  existing  !  The  simple 
Self-Existence  of  Matter  tells  the  whole!  I  challenge  the  world  to  the  issue! 

For,  what  can  be  plainer  or  more  apodictic  than  that  statement :  The 
Self-Existence  of  Matter  is  the  Self-Existence  of  the  'Universe,  and  the 
Self-Existence  of  the  Universe  is  the  Non-Existence  of  a  God  !  The  Self- 
Existence  of  Matter  is  the  Self- Existence  of  the  Universe,  because  it 
is  the  Self-Existence  of  Matter  to  tin/old  into  the  Universe— it  is  the 
Matter  itself  to  be  and  to  make  the  Universe  !  Dispute  every  inch  of  this 
ground  if  you  are  able  ! 

Matter,  Self-Existent,  is  entirely  another  thing  ! — infinitely  different 
from  what  it  would  be  if  it  were  not  Self-Existent !  It  has  all  the  Attri- 
butes your  God  had.  It  was  his  Self-Existence  made  him  what  he  was. 
It  was  his  Self-Existence  made  him  Infinite — and  Matter  is  Infinite.  His 
Self-Existence  made  him  Eternal — and  Matter  is  Eternal.  His  Self- 
Exislence  made  him  Omnipotent— and  Matter  is  Omnipotent.  It  made 
him  Omniscient— and  Matter  is  Omniscient.  It  made  him  Unchange- 
able, "  the  same  yesterday,  to-day,  and  forever" — and  Matter  is  Un- 
changeable, the  same  immutable  thing  from  and  to  Eternity.  It  made 
him  Perfect — and  Matter  is  Perfect.  Sell-Existence  made  God,  God; 
and  Self-Existence  makes  Matter,  Matter!  ^SPAbsolutely  it  is  the  real- 
ization and  insurance  of  everything  !  I  told  you,  people  did  not  know 
there  was  such  a  thing  as  Matter ! 


Matter  is  Life.  If  some  God  had  created  it,  it  would  be  dead  j  and 
would  need  the  same  God  to  give  it  Life.  But  now,  its  very  existing  is 
Life — for  Self-Existence  and  Life  are  one.  Talk  about  Matter  being  dead  ! 
It  is  not  even  the  truth  that  it  is  Alive  !  It  is  Life  itself ;  all  the  Life  there 
is — Infinite  Life  ! 

Matter  is  Power.  It  is — and  cannot  be  prevented.  And  it  is  what  it 
is — and  nothing  can  prevent  that.  Self-Existence  is  Omnipotence,  and 
all  the  Omnipotence  there  is  or  can  be.  Matter  is  the  only  power  there 
is  in  the  Universe,  for  it  is  the  Universe.  Every  Atom  is  an  Eternal 
Force  ;  Every  Monad,  an  infinite  Energy  ! 

Matter  is  Motion.  It  has  power  to  move,  and  it  does  move,  and  it 
moves  forever.  Nothing  can  stop  it.  Talk  about  "  inertia !"  All  the 
power  in  the  Universe  can't  keep  Matter  still ;  for  all  the  power  in  the 
Universe  is  to  move  !  All  Matter  is  "  Perpetual  Motion."  Not  an  Atom 
but  works  out  that  problem  in  its  own  very  Existence  !  Self-Existence 
and  Motion  are  the  same  thing.  For  Matter  not.  to  move,  would  be  not 
to  be  itself,  nor  anything — not  to  be  at  all  ! 

Matter  is  Intelligence.  It  knows  what  it  is  about.  It  knows  when  to 
move,  and  how  to  move.  It  knows  what  to  do,  and  how  to  do  it.  It 
knows  enough  to  develop  the  Universe,  and  how  to  do  that.  Talk  about 
Matter  being  a  senseless  clod  !  It  knows  everything,  for  it  does  every- 
thing. It  is  all  the  knowledge  there  is,  for  it  is  everything  there  is.  In- 
stead of  an  Omniscient  God,  who  don't  exist,  nor  do  anything,  it  is  Om- 
niscient Matter,  that  does  exist,  and  do  all  things  !  Self-Existence  is 
itself  Infinite  Intelligence  ! 

Matter  is  Will.  It  does  not  what  it  does,  by  chance,  nor  at  hap-haz- 
ard,  as  if  perhaps,  it  might  not  do  it,  or  might  do  it  some  other  Avay. 
But  it  means  to  do  everything  ;  it  wills  to  unfold  the  Universe  !  That  is 
the  very  thing  it  self-exists  for ;  that  is  its  nature.  And  its  nature  is  its 
intention,  its  volition.  So  Matter  is  Will — universal,  eternal,  infinite  Will. 

But,  how  does  Matter  go  to  work  to  develop  the  Universe  ?  It  does 
not  go  to  work  to  do  it.  That  is  nothing  but  the  God  over  again — going 
to  work  to  develop  the  Universe  !  He  Averit  to  work  to  develop  the  Uni- 
verse, because  it  was  not  in  existence — he  went  to  Avork  to  create  it !  But 
the  Universe  is  in  existence,  and  it  always  was  in  existence,  for  Matter 
always  Avas  ;  and  it  was  the  Matter  itself  to  be  the  Universe,  and  then  the 
Universe  was  as  soon  as  the  Matter.  So,  Matter  never  iccnt  to  Avork  to 
develop  the  Universe,  because  the  Universe  always,  was  already  devel- 
oped— Matter  could  not  exist  without  developing  it,  and  then  it  Avas  the 
Matter  to  be  the  Universe  already  deAreloped,  and  then  the  Universe  al- 
ready developed  was  as  soon  as  the  Matter.  The  Universe  always  Avas 
developed  just  as  much  as  it  is  now.  And  it  always  was  developed  in 
the  same  manner  it  is  now.  What  Matter  does  noAv,  it  always  did — the 
eternal  reason  must  giAre  an  eternal  result.  Then,  if  we  know  how  Mattel- 
develops  the  Universe  now,  we  shall  know  how  it  developed  it  always. — 
What  are  Matter's  transcendent  processes,  in  working  out  the  stupendous 
Universe  of  to-day  ? 

All  Matter  contributes  to  the  result.  There  is  not  an  Atom  in  existence, 
which  is  not  needed  to  organize  to-day's  Universe,  and  which  is  not 
actually  concerned  in  organizing  it.  There  is  no  such  thing  as  reserve 


8 

Matter,  not  now  in  use,  but  waiting  to  be  used  hereafter.  Every  part  of 
Matter  is  equally  doing  the  work.  The  universal  reason  must  give  a 
universal  result. 

Matter  unfolds  the  Universe  in  a  perpetual  ground-work  and  grand 
filling-up  of  Stars.  A  picture  of  the  Universe  you  see  every  night. 
Matter,  rarified  everywhere,  and  yet  concentrated  in  innumerable  Suns  ! 
This  Universe  is  one  of  Stars.  The  same  Firmament  we  see,  they  see 
everywhere.  The  same  reason  gives  the  same  result. 

Space  is  full.  The  Stars  have  no  end.  In  every  direction,  forever, 
still  the  Stars  keep  on !  Go  as  long  as  you  will,  but  still,  there  are  as 
many  before  you,  as  you  have  left  behind.  Above,  beneath,  to  right,  to 
left,  there  is  no  place  where  you  can  stand  on  the  last  Star,  and  throw  a 
stone  out  into  nothing !  There  is  no  last  Star ;  but  there  are  ever  so 
many  more  beyond  it.  There  is  no  outside.  There  is  no  grand  Center 
of  the  Universe,  round  which  all  the  Stars  revolve.  That  would  give  a 
circumference,  and  then  the  Stars  would  end.  Even  if  our  Stars  revolve 
around  some  center,  yet  they  are  not  the  Universe.  But  the  Universe 
comprehends  an  infinity  of  just  such  centers  ;  and  then,  a  whole  infinity 
of  times  the  number  of  all  our  Stars.  There  is  but  one  Definition,  but 
that  is  absolute  :  A  Universe,  with  its  center  everywhere,  and  its  circum- 
ference nowhere  !  Matter  is  an  Eternal  Infinite ;  and  then,  so  is  the 
Universe  of  Stars  it  makes.  Space  is  a  forever  Infinite  ;  but  the  Universe 
of  Stars  is  as  Infinite  as  the  Infinity  of  Space  itself!  Talk  about  ajinite 
Universe,  with  a  JSTJumping-off  place — and  then  "  where  would  you 
go  to  ?  "  Talk  about  an  infinite  God,  and  a  finite  Universe — infinite 
Nothing,  and  finite  Everything  ! 

But  these  Stars  of  to-day  have  not  always  existed.  Their  Matter  has, 
but  they  have  not.  No  Star  is  Eternal,  even  if  each  one  lives  on  through 
billions  of  ages.  And  these  Stars  have  not  all  been  developed  into  ex- 
istence at  once.  All  the  trees  in  a  wood  are  not  of  the  same  age  :  but 
some  are  just  springing  up ;  some  are  saplings  ;  some  are  in  middle  life  ; 
some  are  old ;  others  are  dead,  though,  still  standing ;  and  others  have 
fallen — logs  on  the  ground  ;  while  yet  others,  that  were  trees,  now  are 
not,  but  are  only  soil,  to  which  they  have  mouldered  back.  So,  there 
are  Stars  that  are  now  being  developed,  out  of  Matter  that  was  in  Stars 
before  ;  and  there  are  Stars  that  are  now  young ;  and  Stars  that  are  now 
old  ;  and  Stars  that  are  now  being  decomposed;  and  there  is  now  what 
was  Stars,  and  equally,  what  will  be  again — at  present  a  mere  chaos  of 
their  elements  :  there  are  all  these  things  among  the  Stars  to-day.  But, 
no  matter  how  many  Stars  are  going  out  at  any  one  time,  or  are  out,  they 
are  as  nothing  to  those  that  are  at  the  same  time  left — there  is  a  perfect 
infinity  remaining.  Matter  still  preserves  the  Universe — the  amazing 
and  transcendent  complement  is  forever  full.  But  thus,  the  Stars  are 
all  the  time  coming  and  going,  in  their  various  places  in  immensity — 
growing,  whether  to  their  greatness  or  decline.  Matter's  process  is  long 
and  slow,  whether  in  developing,  or  extinguishing,  a  Star  ;  but  there  is 
an  Eternity  to  do  the  work  in. 

But  now,  it  is  very  simple  and  easy,  how  Matter  develops  all  these  Stars. 
To  develop  a  Star,  is  to  grow  into  one.  So  the  Matter  in  one  place,  yrows 
into  a  Star  there  ;  and  the  Matter  in  another  place,  grows  into  a  Star  there  ; 


9 

and  thus  on,  until  Matter  in  all  places,  grows  into  all  the  Stars.  All 
Stars  are  not  developed  by  the  same  Matter ;  but  each  Star  is  developed 
by  its  own  Matter — that  which  it  grew  out  of.  And  all  Matter  has  noth- 
ing to  do  with  developing  any  one  Star,  but  only,  that  particular  Matter 
which  grew  into  that  Star.  Each  particular  Matter  is  a  thing  by  itself, 
and  it  does  its  own  work — grows  into  its  own  Star  ;  and  when  each  Matter 
has  done  this,  you  have  the  whole  Universe  of  Stars  !  And  each  Mattel- 
grows  into  its  Star  because  it  is  its  nature  to — it  is  the  very  nature  of  that 
collection  of  Matter  to  form  that  Star — it  is  that  Matter  to  be  that  Star. 
That  Matter,  at  that  time,  and  under  those  circumstances,  can't  be  nay- 
thing  but  that  Star.  It  is  the  nature  of  Matter  to  be  and  to  do,  whatever 
it  is  and  does  ;  and  then  it  is  the  nature  of  that  Matter  to  be  a  chaos  at 
one  time,  and  a  Star  at  another,  and  still  afterward,  to  be  that  chaos 
again.  The  Matter  wants  to  change  to  be  all  this,  and  wills  to — and 
does  it ! 

And  now,  the  road  is  open  to  see  how  Matter  does  all  other  things. 
For  it  is  not  that  Matter  develops  Stars,  alone;  but  indeed,  it  exists  to 
develop  the  Universe.  And  so  it  is  the  nature  of  the  Matter  that,  lias 
formed  a  Star,  from  that  Star  to  form  something  else,  to  perfect  that 
other  design.  It  is  the  nature  of  a  Sun  to  produce  Planets  ;  and  then 
it  is  the  nature  of  the  Planets  to  revolve  round  their  Sun.  And  it  is  the 
nature  of  the  Planets  to  produce  Moons ;  and  of  Moons  to  revolve  round 
Planets.  Stars  form  Planets,  and  Planets  form  Moons,  for  the  same 
reason  that  Matter  before  formed  Stars — it  is  nature,  it  is  necessity,  it  is 
what  all  things  self-exist  for.  It  can't  be  helped  ;  the  thing  cannot  be 
any  other  way.  It  is  the  very  Matter  of  a  Planet  to  be  that  Planet,  or 
of  a  Moon  to  be  that  Moon ;  not  to  be  that  Planet  or  Moon  would  be  not 
to  be  Matter,  nor  anything  else — not  to  exist ;  and  that  is  infinitely  im- 
possible,and  then  it  is  equally — or  infinitely — impossible  the  Matter  should 
not  be  Planet  or  Moon.  If  it  was  impossible  the  Matter  should  not  before 
be  a  Star,  equally  impossible  is  it,  it  should  not  now  be  Planet  or  Moon. 
And  equally  impossible  is  it,  it  should  not  be  and  do,  all  the  Planet  or 
Moon  is  and  does.  It  is  the  very  nature  of  the  Matter  of  the  Moon  to 
be  a  globe,  and  to  turn  on  its  axis,  and  then  to  move  in  an  orbit  round 
the  Planet ;  and  likewise  it  is  the  nature  of  the  Matter  of  the  Planet  to  be 
a  globe,  and  to  turn  on  its  axis,  and  then  to  move,  together  with  the  Moon, 
in  an  orbit  round  the  Sun.  It  is  as  much  the  nature  of  the  new  Matter, 
(that  in  the  Planet  or  Moon,)  to  do  the  new  work,  (perform  all  these 
revolutions,)  as  it  was  that  of  the  old  Matter,  (that  in  the  Star,)  to  do  the 
old  work — form  and  be  the  Star.  The  whole  work  is  Nature,  what  Mattel- 
wants  to  be  and  do,  and  then  what  Matter  is — it  is  Matter  itself  to  be  and 
do  it  all.  It  is  all  part  of  Matter's  Self-Existence — to  work  out  the  Uni- 
verse ;  and  then  it  is  just  as  impossible  it  should  not  all  be,  as  that  the 
Universe  should  not  be. 

And  then  it  is  the  nature  of  the  Planets,  which  are  at  first  liquid  fire, 
(the  occasion  of  their  being  round,)  to  cool  off,  and  crust  over  with 
granite  ;  and  afterward,  from  the  granite  as  a  base,  to  develop  the  Mineral 
Kingdom  ;  and  from  that,  the  Vegetable  Kingdom  ;  and  from  that,  the 
Animal  ;  and  then  the  Human  Races,  on  the  top  of  all  :  and  the  Planets 
will  still  go  on  developing  this  their  final  fruit— of  Human  Beings till 


they  have  cooled  to  the  center,  and  their  own  infernal  fires  are  quenched  ; 
and  then  the  Planets  themselves  will  die,  and  go  back  to  their  Sun,  and 
in  time,  the  whole  return  to  that  original  chaos,  afterward  to  be  repro- 
duced, and  to  run  the  same  mighty  round  again  !  It  is  still  the  nature 
of  Matter  to  be  and  do  all  this,  just  as  it  was,  first  to  be  the  Sun,  or 
afterward  the  Planet.  It  is  the  very  Matter  itself,  now  to  be  stones,  soil, 
vegetables,  animals,  men,  all  things  ;  just  as  much  as  before,  it  was  to  be 
the  Planet  which  grew  into  all  these.  Men  are  as  natural  as  grass,  and 
as  impossible  not  to  exist.  Matter  at  a  certain  stage,  would  not  be  Matter 
if  it  did  not  become  men — it  can't  help  becoming  men,  for  that  is  its  very 
existence.  It  is  as  impossible  there  should  not  be  men,  as  it  is  there 
should  not  be  Stars ;  for  that  is  what  the  Stars  are  for — to  produce  the 
men.  The  Stars  are  to  make  Planets,  and  the  PJanets  to  make  men.  It 
is  all  that  same  Self-Existence  of  Matter,  to  develop  the  Universe,  and 
everything  in  the  Universe  ;  and  most  of  all,  Man,  the  greatest  thing  in 
the  Universe. 

And  now  that  great  secret  is  unraveled,  Whence  and  how  comes  In- 
telligence? Matter  develops  Intelligence,  in  developing  the  Universe. 
Matter  itself  is  Intelligence  ;  but  all  Matter  is  yet,  not  equally  so.  A 
stone  is  not  Mind  ;  and  the  dust  in  the  street  does  not  know  so  much  as 
the  flesh  of  my  cheek,  though  the  flesh  was  once  that  dust,  and  it  will  be 
again.  All  Matter  knows  enough  to  do  its  work — develop  the  Universe  , 
but  one  part  of  Matter  has  to  do  a  higher  work  than  another,  and  there- 
fore has  to  know  more  ;  and  the  same  part  has  to  do  a  higher  work  at 
one  time,  than  another,  and  therefore  at  that  time,  has  to  know  more. 
Lowest  Matter,  or  that  in  chaos,  has  sense,  consciousness,  thought,  voli- 
tion, or  it  could  not  go  to  work  to  become  a  Star ;  but  the  Star,  being 
made,  knows  more  than  the  Matter  that  made  it — it  develops  higher 
powers  than  the  chaos.  So  the  granite  of  a  Planet  knows  enough  to  de- 
compose, and  grow  into  soil ;  but  the  soil  knows  more  yet,  for  it  moves 
faster,  and  changes  into  something  else  more  quickly — vegetation  ;  but 
that  has  still  greater  power  and  motion,  and  yet  higher  knowledge,  so 
that  it  straightway  gives  birth  to  the  Animal ;  but  that  as  much  trans- 
cends the  Vegetable,  and  presently  flowers  into  Man.  It  is  simply,  that 
Matter  in  organisms,  possesses  Intelligence  which  other  Matter  does  not ; 
and  high  organisms  develop  Intelligence  which  low  ones  do  not ;  and 
then  the  highest  organisms  of  all,  develop  the  final  and  perfect  Intelli- 
gence which  we  call  Mind.  Mind  and  Matter  are  one ;  only,  it  must  be 
the  Matter  of  a  human  organism — of  a  man — and  not  a  stone,  nor  a  tree, 
nor  at  last,  even  the  highest  animal.  It  must  be  the  highest  of  all,  the 
brain  of  a  man  ;  and  then  it  is  true  Mind,  Soul,  Spirit.  And  it  is  the 
nature  of  that  Matter  to  be  Mind,  as  before,  if  was  the  nature  of  other 
Mattf  r  to  be  all  other  things.  It  is  the  very  organization  of  a  man's 
br&ir  tf  develop  Mind,  and  then  it  is  itself  the  Matter  of  his  brain 
to  be  Mind.  It,  is  as  much  the  new  Matter  to  be  Mind,  as  it  was  the 
old  Matter  to  be  a  Star,  or  a  Planet — it  is  but  the  continuation  and  com- 
pletion of  the  same  growth.  It  is  as  much  the  Matter  of  a  man's  brain 
to  be  Mind,  as  it  is  the  Matter  of  his  foot  to  be  his  foot,  and  to  be  gov- 
erned by  that  Mind.  Not  to  be  Mind  would  be  not  to  be  Brain,  but  only 
some  other  Matter,  as  a  stone,  unorganized  earth,  or  some  organization 


11 

that  is  only  low,  as  an  oyster,  a  snail,  or  the  low,  imperfect  brain  of  any 
brute.  Not  to  be  Mind  would  be  to  throw  away  all  the  work  Matter  had 
done  before  ;  for  that  is  precisely  what  Matter  has  gone  through  this  long 
process  from  chaos  for — to  develop  Mind.  It  is  all  a  part,  and  now  the 
finishing  part,  of  that  same  Self-Existence  of  Matter — to  develop  the  Uni- 
verse.; and  last  and  most  of  all,  to  develop  Mind,  as  the  perfection  of  this 
Universe.  It  is  that  same  Self-Existence  of  Matter — to  develop  this  Uni- 
verse, and  Intelligence,  in  one  ! 

And  this  is  the  Universe  of  to*day  !  All  developed  by  Matter  ;  and 
by  Matter  so  naturally,  easily,  and  necessarily  !  One  part  of  Matter  de- 
veloping one  thing,  and  another  part,  another  ;  and  the  same  part  devel- 
oping one  thing  at  one  time,  and  another  at  another  time  ;  but  eacli  part 
thus  doing  its  own  work  in  its  own  time,  and  then  all  parts  doing  the 
whole — all  parts  developing  the  Universe  !  Matter  not  so  much  doing 
all  this,  as  being  it— not  so  much  developing  the  Universe,  as  exiztiny  it  ! 
Not  so  much,  any  such  thing  as  Matter ;  but  rather,  after  all,  only  the 
Universe  !  No  such  thing  as  abstract,  mere  Matter  ;  but  on  the  contrary, 
everywhere,  actual,  even-now-existing,  Universe  !  Even  if,  here  and 
there,  Matter  existing  abstractly,  or  in  chaos,  yet  everywhere  else  through- 
out a  perfect  infinity,  it  existing  only  as  Stars,  Stars,  Stars  !  And  even 
that  one  chaos,  once  a  Star,  and  at  once  to  be  again  !  And  then,  though 
possible  for  Matter  thus  to  develop  a  Star,  yet  impossible  for  it  to  develop 
the  Universe — infinitely  already-developed!  Matter  and  Universe  only 
other  words — Matter  and  Universe  one  and  the  same  thing  !  Matter  only 
existing  as  it  is  Universe,  and  forever  impossible  to  exist  any  olhcr  way  ! 
Universe  !  Universe  ! 

And  this  Universe  of  to-day,  is  the  Universe  of  Always  !  Always  is 
as  great  and  good  as  Now  ;  and  then  it  fares  as  well.  There  is  the  same 
power,  the  same  need,  the  same  reason — and  then  the  same  result.  Mat- 
ter is  now  ;  and  Matter  was  then.  Matter  is  Universe  now  ;  and  Mattel- 
was  Universe  then.  Matter  can't  exist  without  being  the  Universe  now  ; 
and  it  could  not  exist  without  being  the  Universe  then.  Matter  can't  be 
abstract  now  ;  and  it  could  not  be  abstract  then  :  it  has  to  be  an  already- 
developed  Universe  now,  and  it  had  to  be  an  already-developed  Universe 
then.  The  Universe  existed  always,  for  Matter  did — and  this  Universe 
existed  always  ! 

And  it  is  easy  to  see  how  the  Universe  existed  always,  and  existed 
always  the  same  that  it  is  to-day.  Before  our  sky  and  Stars,  there  were 
others,  but  out  of  the  same  Matter  ;  and  before  those  there  were  others  ; 
and  before  those,  still  others  ;  and  before  these  last,  still  others  yet ;  and 
so  on,  Star  before  Star,  away  back  forever  !  There  never  was  a  time 
when  there  were  no  Stars  ;  but  there  were  always  as  many  as  there  are 
now — a  perfect  infinity.  Space^was*  always  full  of  Stars.  There  never 
was  a  time  when  it  was  all  one  grand  Chaos  ;  but  on  the  contrary,  it  was 
always,  this  one  grand  and  infinite  Universe,  with  only  here  and  there 
the  little  chaoses,  where  some  Star  had  just  now  disappeared,  but  where 
it  was  equally,  just  now  coming  again.  There  never  was  any  frst  Star  ; 
but  whole  infinities  of  Stars  went  before  it,  and  even  its  own  Matter  had 


12 

been  a  Star  in6nite  times  before.  So,  there  were  other  Planets  and  Moons 
before  ours  were  ;  and  before  these  there  were  others,  and  before  these, 
still  others,  in  this  same  literally-endless  succession  !  There  never  was 
any  first  Planet  nor  Moon  ;  but  verily,  Moons  and  Planets  run  back, 
back,  always,  in  likeness  as  did  the  Stars.  And  then,  before  the  stones 
and  trees  and  men  of  to-day,  there  were  others  ;  and  before  those,  still 
others,  running  back  in  the  same  manner,  till  there  is  no  stopping — al- 
ways and  always  !  All  things  have  been  always,  just  as  they  are  now — 
not  the  same  ones,  but  others  just  like  them,  and  before  them,  in  this 
Universe.  There  never  was  any  first  man  ;  but  there  had  always  been 
men  before  him,  and  as  many  more  before  those,  and  still  as  many  more 
before  those,  even  forever  !  There  was  a  first  man  on  any  one  Planet ; 
(or  might  have  been,)  but  there  were  other  Planets  before  that  one,  and 
they  had  men,  too.  There  never  was  any  first — not  any  first  anything. 
But  ail  things  always  were — stones,  trees,  lakes,  rivers,  men,  births, 
deaths,  years,  days,  hours,  minutes,  seconds,  meteors,  comets,  auroras, 
rainbows,  thunder,  lightning — the  Universe  !  Every'hlng  always  was, 
just  as  it  is  now.  Everything  cuuld  be,  for  it  was  just  as  easy.  Every- 
thing was,  for  there  was  the  same  reason.  JJ^~When  you  know  what  is 
now,  yon  know  what  was  always  ! 

So  the  Universe  had  no  beginning.  A  Universe  that  is  Self-Existent, 
is  a  Universe  without  a  beginning.  Self- Existence  already  and  eternally 
is.  If  there  can  be  first  years  in  Eternity,  then  may  there  be  first  years 
in  the  Universe — the  beginning  of  the  Universe,  and  the  beginning  of 
Eternity  are  one  !  It  is  only  the  Universe  that  made  Eternity.  Eternity 
is  not  a  thing,  but  only  an  Attribute ;  and  then  to  exist,  that  must  exist, 
of  which  it  is  the  Attribute.  Had  there  been  no  Universe  there  could 
have  been  no  Eternity  ;  and  then  the  Universe  is  as  soon  as  the  Eternity, 
and  it  no  more  has  a  beginning  than  the  Eternity.  And  if  ever  there  was 
a  beginning  of  the  Universe,  then  that  was  a  jumping -off  place,  was  it  not  ? 
And  what  was  there  when  you  got  to  it,  and  how  did  things  look  in 
those  days  ?  What  was  there  to  make  days  ?  You  cannot  conceive  any 
such  thing  !  Instead  of  not  being  able  to  conceive  that  the  Universe 
had  nut  a  beginning,  you  cannot  begin  to  conceive  that  it  had  one — you 
cannot  possibly  conceive  of  any  such  thing  as  nothing  !  And  then  you 
cannot  conceive  of  a  time  when  it  all  was  nothing  !  If  ever  there  was  a 
time  when  the  Universe  began,  then  before  that  it  was  all  nothing — and 
you  cannot  begin  to  form  any  such  conception  !  And  if  you  say  that 
though  there  was  no  Universe,  yet  it  was  all  Matter,  nevertheless,  why 
did  not  that  Matter  actualize  the  Universe  ?  It  does  so  now  ;  and  why 
did  it  not  then  ?  What  new  thing  has  set  it  to  work  ?  There  is  no  new 
thing  ;  but  it  actualizes  the  Universe  now,  because  it  is  its  nature  ;  and 
it  had  the  same  nature  then  ;  and  therefore  it  must  have  actualized  the 
Universe  then !  You  cannot  conceive  why  it  should  not  have  existed  the 
Universe  then,  as  much  as  it  does  now ;  and  then  you  cannot  conceive 
that  it  did  not  exist  the  Universe  then — you  cannot  conceive  that  the 
Universe  did  not  exist — you  cannot  conceive  that  the  Universe  had  a  be- 
ginning !  But  all  things  existed  on,  one  befoie  one,  and  another  before 
another,  away  back,  literally,  forever  and  forever  ! 


13 

And  this  Universe  of  to-day,  as  it  is  thus  the  Universe'of  the  Eternal 
Past,  so  it  is  equally,  the  Universe  of  the  Eternal  Future  !  What  Matter 
does  now,  it  will  always  do.  This  Universe  that  is  now,  in  like  manner 
as  it  is  now,  and  for  the  same  reason,  will  be  always.  It  will  no  more,  ever 
cease  hereafter,  than  it  ever  began  heretofore.  But,  after  the  Suns  and 
Planets  and  men  and  all  things,  of  to-day,  there  will  be  others  ;  and  after 
those,  still  others,  on,  on,  on,  without  any  end.  There  will  be  no  last 
man,  nor  world,  nor  anything  ;  any  more  than  before,  there  was  ever  any 
first  one.  Not  the  fame  things  will  be  always,  but  just  like  things — not 
the  same  things,  but  the  same  Universe.  It  will  be  forever,  for  it  will 
make  forever.  Forever  will  be  the  Attribute  of  the  Universe  in  the  future, 
as  Eternity  was  its  Attribute  in  the  past.  Matter  will  be  forever,  and  then 
the  Universe  will.  When  you  know  what  is  now,  you  know  what  will  be 
always,  just  as  you  equally,  know  what  has  been  always:  know  both — 
what  has  been,  and  what  loUl  be,  in  one  ! 

Then  this  is  the  Universe  !  Present,  gone,  to  come — still  the  same  ! 
Matter  unfolding  it  from  and  to  Eternity  !  Matter  existing  it  from  and  to 
Eternity!  Matter,  Infinite,  Eternal,  Self-Existent,  Omnipotent,  Immuta- 
ble, the  Universe,  Infinite,  Eternal,  Self-Existent,  Omnipotent,  Immutable! 
The  one,  the  other — the  two,  one  !  The  Universe  only  another  name  for 
that  which  Matter  must  everywhere  and  forever  be,  and  Matter  only  another 
name  for  that  which  the  Universe  everywhere  and  forever  is  !  Illimitable 
and  perpetual  Matter,  and  illimitable  and  perpetual  Universe  1  Imposible 
not  to  be  the  one,  and  impossible  not  to  be  the  other  !  Self-Existent  one, 
and  Self-Existent  other  !  jBiT'A  Universe  that  is  Matter,  and  Matter  that 
is  a  Universe ! 

Can  any  man  furnish  such  a  Rationale  of  the  Universe  as  this  ?  Has 
any  man  ever  furnished  such  a  Rationale  of  the  Universe  as  this  ?  So 
simple,  so  easy,  so  perfectly  transparent,  so  absolutely  ablaze  with  self- 
evidence?  I  challenge  the  Human  Race  for  another  ! 

And  now,  Where  is  your  God?  What  kind  of  a  rationale  does  he  fur- 
nish ?  And  what  beccmes  of  him,  now  that  this  Rationale  supersedes  him  °. 
Who  will  save  God  from  the  overpowering  and  annihilation  of  an  infinite 
Universe  ?  WTho  will  hold  him  back  from  the  inevitable  and  pursuing 
doom  of  Self-Existent  Matter?  Davis,  Spiritualist,  Infidel — all  who  be- 
lieve in  Matter — come  and  rescue  your  God  from  the  slaying  of-that  very 
Matter  ! 

If  you  say  that  I  have" given  Matter  all  the  Attributes  of  a"  God,  and 
therefore  I  still  have  a  God,  only  that  I  make  Matter  that  God,  indeed  I  do 
give  Matter  all  the  Attributes  of  a  God,  and  well  I  may — for  the  Matter 
exists,  and  verily,  it  has  the  Attributes  !  But  that  does  not  prove  a  God, 
but  disproves  one — for  it  proves  no  need  of  one.  Matter  that  exists,  and 
that  can  work  out  the  Universe,  does  not  prove  a  God  that  does  not  exist, 
and  that  cannot  work  out  anything  !  Instead  of  Matter  being  a  God,  that 
is  the  precise  reason  why  there  is  no  God,  because  there  is  Matter  !  Talk 
about  Mailer  being  a  God,  when  it  is  the  infinite  annihilation  of  God  ! 

If  you  say  that,  though  there  is  indeed  Matter,  and  it  is  truly  Self- 
Existent,  yet  God  existed  from  eternity  along  with  it,  tiro  things  instead 


14 

of  one,  or  two  things  that  were  one — Matter  the  Body,  and  God  the  Soul — 
nevertheless,  what  have  I  all  the  while  been  telling  you  ?  For  this  is 
nothing  but  that  same  old  inconsistency  with  which  1  have  so  many  times 
charged  you — that  impossibility  of  accepting  Self-Existent  Matter,  and 
yet  getting  in  a  God,  too  !  For  Self-Existent  Matter  is  precisely  what 
excludes  a  God — there  can  be  but  one  Infinite,  Omnipotent,  Supreme  ! 
And  likewise  this  is  that  same  He,  that  Self  Existent  Matter  needs  a  Soul — 
as  if  it  was  not  Soul  itself,  all  the  Soul  there  is,  infinite  Soul  !  As  if 
Self-Existence  and  Soul  were  not  the  same  thing! 

And  if  you  say  that  Matter  is  Negative,  and  then  it  must  co-exist  with 
some  Positive,  and  that  Positive  is  God,  yet  what  are  you  thinking  about 
to  say  so  ?  For  that  is  the  very  same  lie,  and  almost  in  the  same  words  ! 
Talk  about  what  is  Self-Existent  being  Negative  !  The  doctrine  of  Matter, 
Negative,  is  the  perfect  doctrine  of  Matter,  Dead — and  that  is  nothing 
but  the  old  dogma  of  Matter,  Created  1  Self-Existent  Matter  is  the  infi- 
nite and  eternal  opposite  of  Negative  Matter  !  You  only  show  that  you 
don't  know  what  you  are  talking  about,  all  this  while  admitting  Matter, 
Self-Existent ! — not  even,  after  I  have  so  many  times  told  you  !  Once 
and  for  all, "Self-Existent  Matter  is  Alive  ;  and  it  don't  need  anything 
but  itself;  and  it  won't  have  anything  but  itself!  It  don't  need  any  kind 
of  a  God ;  and  it  won't  have  any  kind  of  a  God !  It  don't  need  any- 
thing Positive  ;  for  it  is  Positive,  and  the  only  thing  Positive  there  is  ! 
Let  it  never  again  need  to  be  repeated  among  men  :  Self-Existent  Matter 
itself  is  everything  that  any  God  could  be,  and  therefore  it  makes  any 
and  every  God  impossible — and  that  is  all  there  is  of  it  ! 

And  if  you  ,=ay  that  for  all,  Matter  cannot  thus  work  out  the  Universe, 
yet,  why  can  it  not  ?  Why  can  it  not,  as  well  as  God  can  ?  If  God  is  not 
nothing,  then  he  is  substance,  he  is  Matter  ;  and  then,  why  cannot  this  Mat- 
ter work  out  the  Universe,  as  well  as  the  Matter  you  say  he  is?  What 
advantage  has  your  Matter  over  mine  ?  If  your  Matter  is  finite,  then  assur- 
edly it  cannot  work  out  the.  Universe,  while  mine  can — for  the  Universe  is 
infinite.  But,  if  your  Matter  is  infinite,  then  the  only  way  it  can  work  out 
the  Universe,  is  to  do  as  I  said  mine  did — one  part  of  it  work  out  one  part 
of  the  Universe,  and  another,  another  part ;  and  the  some  part  work  out  one 
thing  at  one  time,  and  another  one  at  another  time  ;  and  thus  all  the  parts 
work  out  the  whole.  But  if  your  Matter  can  do  all  this,  why  cannot 
mine  ?  And  if  mine  can,  then  yours  becomes  the  perfect  "fifth  wheel 
to  a  coach,"  and  is  not  wanted ! 

And  if  you  say  that  Matter  cannot  know  enough,  thus  to  develop  the 
Universe,  yet,  how  can  the  Matter  of  your  God  know  any  more,  or  better  ? 
If  his  Matter  is  finite,  then  certainly,  it  cannot  know,  for  it  cannot  be — it 
cannot  be,  everywhere,  nor  then,  know,  everywhere.  But,  if  his  Matter, 
is  infinite,  then,  why  cannot  my  infinite  Matter  know  what  to  do,  and  how 
to  do  it,  as  well  as  yours — and  in  the  same  way  ?  And  if  it  can,  then 
again  is  yours  superfluous — we  can  get  along  without  it !  It  is  as  long 
as  it  is  broad  :  one  Matter  cannot  get  ahead  of  another —  God  cannot  get 
ahead  of  Matter  !  And  then  God  can  be  spared  ;  for  Matter  we  already 
have,  and  we  cannot  get  rid  of  it  if  we  try  ! 

And  if  you  say  that  there  is  Design  manifest  in  the  workings  of  Matter, 
and  then  there  must  be  a  Designer,  for  Matter  itself  is  not  equal  to  De- 


15 

sign,  yet,  how  is  the  Matter  of  your  God  any  more  equal  to  it  ?  How 
and  why,  can  your  Matter,  spread  out  "jover  all  creation,"  design  any 
better  than  mine  can?  Your  God  is  infinite  Matter ;  and  Matter  is  Mat- 
ter, and  nothing  but  Matter  ;  and  then  what  is  there  to  make  out  Ms  Mattel- 
capable  of  Design,  any  more  than  this  Matter  of  the  Universe  ?  And  if  there 
is  nothing,  then,  still  again  is  your  Matter  only  an  impertinence ;  and  the 
sooner  you  get  it  out  of  the  way  of  the  Matter  that  is  first  on  the  track,  the 
better !  There  is  no  such  Design  in  the  operations  of  Matter.  Things  can't 
be  any  other  way.  Matter  can't  help  doing  just  what  it  does.  It  is  Matter 
itself  to  do  just  what  it  does.  And  then,  if  you  think  things  must  be 
designed,  so  they  are — Matter  designs  them,  and  then  God  don't !  Mat- 
ter designs  them,  because  it  wills  them.  But  that  is  not  Design  in  them, 
as  if  there  was  somebody  back  of  them,  making  them  so-and-so  ,  but 
Matter  makes  them  so-and-so,  and  it  cannot  make  them  anything  else. 
Matter  exists  them  so-and-so,  and  then  they  can't  ie  any  thing  else  !  There 
is  a  fitness  in  things,  an  adaptedness,  a  philosophy  ;  but,  instead  of  De- 
sign, it  might  as  well  be  called  Necessity,  for  it  is  a  Necessity.  It  is  the 
very  nature  of  the  things  !  Though,  if  you  will  have  it  otherwise,  then 
answer  me  to  that :  Who  designed  God  ?  If  this  Universe  had  to  be 
designed,  then,  Who  designed  its  Designer  ?  For  he  needed  to  be  de- 
signed as  much  as  it  !  And  more,  if  he  is  enough  greater  than  it,  to 
design  it  !  Bid  me  know  who  designed  him! — The  Self-Existence  of  the 
Universe  is  itself  Infinite  Design — infinite  Will  to  be  ! 

And  thus,  if  you  must  have  a  God  to  make  the  Universe,  then,  Who 
made  Qod?  Who  made  the  Being  who  made  the  Universe  ?  If  an  in- 
finite Universe  cannot  get  along  without  being  made,  then,  no  more  can 
an  infinite  God  !  Bid  me  know  then,  who  made  him!  And  if  he  made 
the  Universe,  did  he  make  it  out  of  his  own  Matter — out  of  himself? 
And  then  was  he  as  large  after  he  made  it,  as  he  was  before  ?  Or  did 
he  make  the  whole  of  himself  into  it  ?  And  then  what  became  of  him  ? 
Or,  was  he,  it;  and  was  it,  he?  And  then  did  he  make  himself?  But, 
if  you  say  he  did  not  make  himself,  any  more  than  Matter  makes  itself, 
yet  Mailer  does  not  make  the  Universe — it  self-exists  it,  and  then  the 
Universe  self-exists.  And  if  God  self-existed  it,  and  therefore  it  self- 
existed,  then  it  was  not  made — and  God  did  not  make  it !  If  God  made 
it,  he  made  himself :  if  he  did  not  make  it,  it  is  Self-Existent — and  the 
question,  Who  made  him  ?  is  answered  ! 

All  this  talk  about  Matter  not  being  able,  and  not  knowing  how,  to 
work  out  the  Universe — it  is  not  one  whit  other  than  that  old  doctrine  of 
Matter,  Created  !  It  is  simply  the  old  story  of  dead  Matter,  unable  to  do 
anything  except  as  it  is  made  to  !  It  is  still,  the  immemorial  and  world- 
baptized  "inertia" — that  darling  tenet  of  philosophy  !  A  fig  for  your 
books  of  philosophy,  to  teach  that  exploded  lie  of  theology  !  Talk  about 
a  cannon-ball  always  remaining  in  the  same  place  unless  moved  by  some- 
thing else — J^~absolutely  it  will  walk  off  so  that  nobody  can  find  it  ! 
Granite  is  older  than  cannon-balls  ;  but  granite  has  grown  into  earth  and 
plants  and  animals  and  men — and  cannon-bails  will! — A  boy  shall  hide 
away  his  play-ball  in  the  garret,  on  the  solid  stone  wall,  just  under  the 
eaves  of  his  father's  stone  mansion,  thinking  that,  there  it  shall  lie  forever  , 
but  the  ages  shall  roll  on,  till  the  mansion  itself  shall  disappear,  mingled 


16 

with  all  elements  ;  and  the  yarn  and  leather  of  the  ball  shall  have  become 
grass,  and  sheep,  and  cows,  and  human  brains  ! — "  Soldiers  !  forty  cen- 
turies are  looking  down  upon  you,"  said  Napoleon  to  his  troops, 
standing  beneath  the  shadow  of  the  Pyramids.  But  those  Collossal  Mon- 
uments, of  four  thousand  years,  are  not  the  same  they  were  at  first ;  but 
tons  upon  tons  of  their  stupendous  masonry  have  been  given  off,  and 
borne  every  whither  ;  and  in  time  the  whole  will  crumble  and  be  dissi- 
pated, and  the  once  mighty  Pyramids  will  have  added  themselves  to  the 
Earth's  great  world  of  material,  and  walked  off  to  become  the  substance 
of  organized  bodies  and  living  forms  all  over  the  globe  !  The  very  moun- 
tains of  the  Earth's  ancient  crust  are  washing  away,  and  wearing  down, 
and  decomposing — growing  into  soil,  and  flowers,  and  trees,  and  all 
things  !  There  are  mountains  in  the  Moon,  twenty-two  miles  high  ;  and 
the  Earth's  mountains  were  once  as  high,  or  a  great  deal  higher  ;  but 
they  have  wasted  to  what  they  are  now,  and  they  will  waste,  till  the 
world  shall  be  one  plain  of  vegetation  and  life,  unless  its  future  crust, 
shrinking  to  its  dying  fires,  shall  have  power  to  open  and  throw  up  more  ! 
And  they  will  be  brought  low,  for  the  destiny  must  be  reached.  Not  an 
Atom  on  the  Earth's  extended  surface,  but  is  on  its  way  to  become  a 
cabbage,  an  animal,  and  at  last  a  human  brain — and  nothing  can  stop  it ! 
You  may  bottle  up  the  Atom  :  but  you  will  die  ;  the  bottle  itself  will 
evaporate  ;  and  the  freed  Particle,  strong  in  an  omnipotence  which  all 
the  Gods  cannot  overcome,  will  re-speed  on  its  journey  to  work  out  this 
great  fate  of  an  infinite  Universe!  "Inertia" — it  is  the  Lie  of  lies  ! 
Even  a  man's  dead  body  is  not  dead  ;  but  it  picks  itself  to  piece?,  and 
goes  to  work  to  make  another  man.  Oxygen,  the  great  solvent  of  Nature, 
is  dissolving  everything,  to  build  it  up  into  a  perpetually-new  world  ! 

But  what  a  fool  you  are,  in  all  this  long  talk  about  your  God,  to  be 
prating,  he,  and  him,  and  his  !  What  is  there  in  the  Matter  which  makes 
your  God,  to  make,  he,  and  him,  and  his?  Here  is  your  Matter,  and 
there  it  is,  and  everywhere  it  is  ;  it  is  infinite  :  and  yet,  it  is  all  he  !  This 
part  of  it  is  he,  and  that  part  of  it  it  he,  and  the  whole  of  it  is  he  !  This 
part  of  it  does  one  thing,  and  he  does  it ;  that  part  of  it  does  something  else, 
and  he  does  that ;  and  all  parts  of  it  do  all  things,  and  he  does  them  all ! 
It  takes  an  organized  being  to  be  he ;  but  your  Matter  is  all  unorganized, 
lying  around  loose  everywhere,  strung  from  one  end  of  immensity  to 
where  there  is  no  other  end — and  yet  you  make  just  as  good  a  he  of  it 
all !  It  takes  a  brain  to  think  ;  but  you  spill  over  your  God's  brain,  till 
you  don't  know  where  it  begins  nor  ends,  and  till  it  absolutely  don't  begin 
nor  end — ^ou  spread  it  all  out,  till,  if  it  is  not  nothing  and  nowhere,  il  is 
at  least,  everything  and  everywhere — but  still,  it  all  makes  just  as  good 
a  brain!  And  then  think  what  is  inevitably,  and  all  the  time,  happening 
to  this  he,  scattered  about  in  this  manner  !  Everything  that  is  done,  is 
done  in  him  and  to  him.  So,  hailstones  pelt  him,  fires  burn  him,  knives 
cut  him,  axes  chop  him,  saws  tear  him,  pitchforks  prick  him,  hammers 
pound  him,  bullets  shoot  him,  cannon-balls  crash  through  his  brains,  gun- 
powder blows  him  up,  lightning  rives  him  limb  from  limb,  volcanoes  pour 
their  lava-streams  all  through  his  body,  earthquakes  hold  his  legs  in  an 
inexorable  vice — all,  all  done  every  day  to  this  he!  A  he  must  have  a 
body  ;  and  this  he  must  have  an  infinite  one.  Pray  tell  me,  if  he  has  an 


17 

infinite  head?  If  he  has,  then  he  has  no  foot,  for  there  is  noplace  for  a  foot; 
and  if  he  has  a  foot,  then  he  has  no  head,  for  there  is  no  place  for  that. 
But  if  he  has  a  finite  head,  in  order  that  he  may  have  a  foot,  then,  both 
foot,  head,  body  and  all,  are  finite — and  in  saving  his  foot,  you  have 
lost  his  infinity  !  If  his  foot  is  finite,  then  he  is  finite  to  his  knee  ;  and 
then  to  his  thigh,  and  then  to  his  arms,  and  then  he  is  finite  the  whole 
length  of  him  !  So  that  your  he  that  you  talk  so  much  about,  is  either 
an  infinite  foot  and  no  head,  or  else  he  is  infinitely  and  contemptibly 
finite,  and  unable  to  create  any  Universe  !  An  infinite  he  is  so  much 
stultification.  There  is  no  such  thing  as  a  being  who  is  everywhere  ;  for 
the  very  idea  of  a  being,  is  that  of  limitation,  and  distinction  ;  and  then 
the  being  must  be  one  where,  and  not  some  other  where — much  less  all 
where  !  Every  way,  all  talk  about  God  as  a  beiny — all  prating,  God-he, 
and  him,  and  his — is  worse  than  silliness  ! 

But,  if  you  call  God  a  Principle,  instead  of  a  Person — it  instead  of 
he — the  Life  of  the  Universe,  and  of  all  things  in  the  Universe,  instead 
of  somebody  who  made  the  Universe — even  a  .Self-Existng  Life,  instead 
of  an  All-Creating  one — yet  what  I  have  already  said  has  cut  you  oft' 
from  this,  too.  This  is  your  last  hiding-place — the  slronghold  of  all — 
but  it  shall  not  save  you  !  Pantheism  is  as  false  as  the  other  thing.  The 
Life  of  the  Universe  is  the  Universe,  and  not  something  in  addition  to 
it,  or  other  than  it.  It  is  the  Universe  itself  to  be  Life  ;  not  to  be  Life 
would  be  not  to  exist — not  to  be,  a  Universe.  That  is  what  makes  it  a 
Universe,  because  it  is  Life  :  that  is  why  it  is  a  Universe,  because  it  is 
Life.  It  is  not  the  Universe  and  Life — two  things  ;  but  it  is  the  Uni- 
verse, a  Life — one  thing  :  the  Life  and  the  Universe  are  the  same.  There 
could  not  be  the  Life  without  the  Universe,  and  there  could  not  be  the 
Universe  without  the  Life.  Self-Existence  is  Life  ;  but  the  only  reason 
why  it  is,  is  beceuse  it  is  •SW/'-Life  :  if  it  was  not  Self,  it  would  not  be 
Life,  but  on  the  contrary,  Life  would  have  to  be  given!  And  then,  if 
the  Universe  is  Self-Existent,  its  Life  must  be  Self;  or  else,  Life  would 
have  to  be  given  to  it.  And  if  its  Life  is  Self,  then  it  is  //self,  and  that 
tells  the  whole  story  !  There  is  nothing  beside,  or  but,  the  Universe  ; 
and  then  there  is  no  Life  beside  the  Universe ;  and  then  there  is  no  Life 
that  is  a  God,  nor  any  kind  of  a  God  !  And  men  could  not  thus  talk 
about  a  Life  of  the  Universe,  if  they  did  not  after  all,  feel  that  the  Uni- 
verse was  dead,  and  needed  a  Life,  instead  of  being  one  !  It  is  because 
they  have  not  grown  out  of  that  same  old  doctrine  of  Matter,  Created  ; 
and  because  they  do  not  know  what  comes  of  growing  out  of  it !  It  is  a 
small  thing  to  say  that  Matter  is  Self  Existent,  but  absolutely,  the  Uni- 
verse is ;  and  then  to  talk  about  a  Life- Principle  of  the  Universe,  is 
absurd ;  and  men  only  do  it,  because  they  do  not  know  that  the  Self- 
Existence  of  Matter  thus  means  and  is  the  Self-Existence  of  the  Universe  ! 
There  is  no  more  a  //(/e-Principle  of  the  Universe,  than  there  is  a  Form- 
Principle  of  it ;  or  a  Weight-Principle,  or  a  Size-Principle,  or  a  Color- 
Principle  ;  and  the  only  reason  people  have  not  insisted  that  there  were 
these  other  Principles,  but  have  so  obstinately  persisted  in  asserting  that 
there  must  be  that  Life-one,  is  because  they  have  thus  taken  the  Universe 
to  be  without  Life,  instead  of  saying  that  its  Life  is  itself,  as  its  Form  is 
itself,  its  Weight  is  itself,  its  Size  is  itself,  its  Color  is  itself,  and  as  all  its 
2 


18 

Attributes  are  only  itself — The  life  of  a  tree  is  as  much  a  part  of  that 
tree — is  as  much  that  tree — as  its  shape  is,  as  its  weight  in  avoirdupois, 
as  its  entire  measure  :  it  would  not  be  the  tree  without  the  shape,  weight, 
and  measure  ;  nor  any  more  would  it  be,  without  the  life.  It  may  be  a 
tree  without  one  kind  of  life — the  power  of  budding  and  putting  forth — 
but  it  will  not  be  the  same  tree ;  it  will  still  have  a  life,  but  it  will  be  the 
life,  now  that  its  own  true  work  is  done,  slowly  but  surely  to  grow  into 
something  else,  and  thus  to  do  another  work.  But  its  first  life  was  simply, 
what  the  tree  was  then ;  and  its  present  life  is  simpty  what  it  is  now — 
in  neither  case  is  there  anything  but  the  actual  tree.  And  even  if  the  * 
tree  differs  at  the  two  times,  (as  of  course  it  does  differ,)  yet  what  the 
tree  is  at  one  time,  just  that  it  is,  and  nothing  more  ;  and  what  it  is  at 
the  other  time,  just  that  it  is,  and  nothing  less — there  is  still,  nothing  at 
either  time,  other  than  the  tree — there  is  no  life  beside  the  tree  !  At 
each  time  'it  is  the  tree  to  have  life — not  to  have  it  would  be  not  to  be  the 
tree.  The  tree  and  life  are  one  :  the  tree  is  life,  and  life  is  the  tree  ! — 
Three  are  as  many  kinds  of  life  as  there  are  separate  things  in  existence; 
for  all  organized  things  and  beings  die  :  and  then  they  lose  the  lives 
they  had,  but  still,  .they  all  have  another  :  they  lose  their  lives  as  organ- 
isms, but  still  they  live  on  to  decay,  and  become  something  else — they 
live  on  to  continue  the  Universe  ;  and  this  is  the  kind  of  life  the  Universe 
has — this  is'  its  Life — to  live  on,  to  continue,  to  exist !  But  how  many 
soever  kinds  of  life  there  are,  and  how  many  soever  lives  the  same  thing 
may  have  at  different  times,  still  there  are  but  the  things  with  the  different 
kinds  of  life — still  there  is  but  the  thing  that  has  the  different  lives,  one 
thing  at  one  time,  and  another  at  another,  but  each  time,  the  thing  it  is 
then,  and  nothing  more  !  Still  there  are  never  any  lives  beside  the  things — 
still  there  is  no  life  beside  the  one  thing  that  thus  changes  its  life — no  life 
beside  itself  at  one  time — nor  then  any  life  beside  itself  at  another  time — 
never  any  life  beside  itself  at  that  time  when  it  has  the  life  !  But  in  every 
case  of  a  life,  of  whatever  kind,  and  at  whatever  time,  it  is  the  very 
thing  itself  to  be  life — not  to  be  life  would  be  not  to  be  the  thing.  The 
thing  could  never  exist  without  life,  and  life  could  never  exist  without 
the  tiling  ;  and  then  the  thing  is  life,  and  life  is  the  thing.  It  is  the  thing 
to  have  life,  it  is  its  existence  to  be  life,  and  then  there  is  nothing  but  the 
thing  that  is  life  ! — So  that  our  analysis  of  the  Universe  gives  absolutely 
it,  and  nothing  after  all,  but  it — all  things,  and  nothing  but  all  things — 
and  then  there  is  no  place  to  get  in  a  great  Life  of  the  Universe,  nor  any 
little  life  of  anything — and  you  are  cornered  at  last ! 

Now,  more  than  ever,  no  need  of  a  God  !  Not  even,  of  a  Life-Prin- 
ciple !  And  no  room  for  a  God  !  Not  even,  for  the  same  Life-Principle  ! 
But  all  things  so  compacted,  solid,  one,  that  if  you  could  get  a  Principle 
in,  they  would  instantly  come  together  and  crush  it  out  again  !  No  Prin- 
ciple could  be  introduced  that  was  not  against  all  things  ;  and  then  they 
must  put  their  heel  on  it !  For  this  very  Life  of  all  things,  you  plead  for, 
is  in  the  way  ;  for  it  must  be  something,  and  not  nothing  ;  and  if  it  is  some- 
thing, it  is  substance  ;  and  then  it  is  nothing  but  this  same  Matter  you 
have  been  all  the  while  talking  about — your  GW- Matter — and  then  the 
Universe  is  already  full  of  another  Matter  !  This  Matter — of  the  Uni- 
verse— is  everywhere,  and  everything  ;  and  then,  where  can  your  Matter 


19 

be  ?  And  if  you  say  that  God  Is  a  Spirit — not  the  Spirit  of  the  Ortho- 
dox, an  immateriality,  a  nothing,  but  the  Spirit  of  Spiritualists  and  Infi- 
dels, true  Matter,  but  fine  Matter,  so  fine  that  it  can  co-exist  with  this 
other  Matter — nevertheless,  what  do  you  know  about  any  such  line  Mat- 
ter ?  Put  your  finger  on  it !  You  can't  put  your  finger  on  ncthin<j.  ! 
The  whole  thinar  is  a  fabrication,  outright-created,  and  violently  begotten, 

O  O  »/  O 

just  to  save  your  God  !  There  is  no  need  of  any  such  fine  Matter,  and 
then  there  is  none — you  only  make  it  all !  There  is  simply  this  Matter — • 
of  actualness  and  realness— and  there  is  nothing  more  !  Air  is  air,  and  gas 
is  gas,  and  all  the  elements  are  the  elements ;  and  there  is  nothing  in  all 
these  which  is  not  these  !  Grass  is  grass,  trees  are  trees,  the  Universe  is 
the  Universe,  all  things  are  all  things — and  that's  the  whole  !  There  is 
nothing  in  a  tree  that  is  not  the  tree,  nor  in  the  Universe  that  is  -not  the 
Universe.  Show  us  your  fine,  unsearchable  mystery-Matter  scattered 
through  all  these  things  !— your  fine,  ubiquitous,  Spirit-Matter,  so  full  of 
Midnight  as  to  be  everywhere  and  nowhere  all  the  samel  It  is  all  stuff, 
but  you  don't  stuff  us  with  it !  There  is  no  place  for  it ;  but  Matter  has 
already  taken  that  place,  and  filled  it  to  infinity  !  Omnipotence  ex- 
cludes your  Spirit— that  Omnipotence  of  the  Matter  that  is  everywhere, 
and  that  makes  all  things  ! 

And  now,  more  than  ever,  see  how  infinitely  letter  something  is  than 
a  God — even,  than  that  same  Life-Principle  !  For  indeed,  you  made  a 
great  mistake  when  you  put  in  your  plea  for  a  Life  of  the  Universe,  in 
calling  it  a  Self-Existing  Life,  instead  of  an  All-Creating  one  !  You 
wanted  it  to  be  the  Life  of  all  things,  and  yet  you  meant  that  all  things 
should  self-exist !  You  instinctively  felt  that  if  all  things  could  not  self- 
exist,  the  glory  of  your  Universe  was  ended  !  But  that  is  the  very  fate 
which  now,  you  have  brought  upon  yourself  !  For  on  the  very  face  of 
it,  a  Life-Principle  is  All-Creating,  and  it  must  be — it  gives  Life  to  the 
Universe  ;  that  is  the  only  thing  you  want  it  for  !  Say  that  there  is  ro 
Life-Principle — say  that  there  is  no  need  of  any,  because  the  Universe 
itself  is  Life — and  then  the  Universe  self-exists  ;  but  say  that  there  is  a 
Life-Principle,  which  gives  Life,  and  then  infallibly,  the  Universe  does  no! 
self-exist ;  but  on  the  contrary,  .Life  or  existence  is  bestowed  upon  it — it 
is  brought  into  Life  or  existence — it  is  created!  You  cannot  avoid  the 
result.  Matter  is  the  Universe  ;  but  a  Life-Principle  creates  it,  for  it 
creates  its  Life  or  existence,  and  that  is  creating  it.  And  then  see  what 
you  have  lost  by  your  Life-Principle  !  You  have  lost  your  Universe 
during  that  whole  Eternity  before  it  was  created  !  You  know  the  Ortho- 
dox God  spent  a  whole  eternity  doing  nothing,  and  only  made  the  Uni- 
verse a  little  while  ago,  so  that  his  Universe  lost  all  the  existence  it  would 
have  had  in  that  illimitable  duration  before  ;  and  now  your  Life-Principle 
does  the  same  thing,  and  loses  the  Universe  in  the  same  way  !  It  creates 
the  Universe  ;  and  then  the  Universe  begins  ;  and  then,  before  i;  begin* 
there  is  a  whole  Eternity  !  No  matter  how  long  ago,  it  created  it — even 
forever,  if  you  would  say  so — yet,  before  that  time  there  was  a  literal 
forever  !  Even  if  the  Life-Principle  itself  existed  forever,  yet  it  could 
not  create  the  Universe  forever — it  had  to  exist  first,  and  create  after- 
ward !  And  no  matter  how  soon  afterward — for  still  there  was  a  whole 
Eternity  before,  for  Time  never  began.  Matter  can  be  the  Universe,  as 


20 

soon  as  it  exists — even  forever— because  it  exists  the  Unirerse  :  Matter 
is  the  Universe,  and  then  when  it  is,  that  is.  But  a  Life-Principle  does 
not  exist  the  Universe,  but  creates  it;  and  then  itself  has  to  exist  first — 
and  then  that  whole  Eternity  has  to  go  by  first,  or  go  beforehand  !  So 
that,  say  what  you  will,  your  Universe  has  lost  an  Eternity  at  the  other 
end  of  it— it  is  finite  in  Time.  And  then  it  is  finite  in  Space,  too ;  for 
what  is  finite  in  Time,  must  be  in  Space.  A  Life-Principle  could  never 
make  the  Universe  as  large  as  it  would  be  if  it  had  always  been  larger — 
JSPit  could  never  catch  up  !  And  then  your  Universe  is  finite  all  round, 
and  nothing  to  what  it  might  have  been — and  isn't  any  Universe  !  Any- 
thing that  is  finite,  don't  deserve  to  be  called  a  Universe  !  And  so,  your 
Life- Principle  has  cost  you  your  Universe!  Better  let  God  go — even 
God,  under  the  name  of  the  Life  of  the  Universe — and  have  a  Universe, 
than  keep  God  and  have  nojie !  This  Universe  is  more  than  that  other 
abortion,  and  its  Life  thrown  in  to  boot !  You  can  think  to  the  end  of 
any  God  in  two  seconds.  And  you  can  think  to  the  end  of  any  Universe 
creafed  by  a  God,  in  two  seconds.  But  you  can't  think  to  the  end  of  this 
Universe,  forever — for  there  is  no  end  to  think  to  ! 

A  God  is  simply  impossible,  and  there's  no  use  talking  about  it !  And 
a  God  is  perfectly  and  infinitely  impossible,  and  that's  the  end  of  it  I 
No  man  can  hold  an  argument  on  God  two  minutes.  I  can  knock  over 
all  the  arguments  in  favor  of  a  God,  faster  than  any  man  can  get  them 
out  of  his  mouth.  There  is  nothing  to  be  an  argument  in  favor  of! 
Everything  proclaims  it ;  the  evidence  overwhelms  you  ! — Self-Existent 
Universe  is  Non-Existent  God  ! — And  there  is  nothing  in  the  Universe 
but  the  Universe ;  and  there  is  nothing  outside  of  the  Universe,  for  there 
is  no  Outside,  to  it :  and  then  there  is  nothing  but — the  sheer  Universe 
itself! — And  God  can't  make  things  any  different  from  what  they  are; 
but  everything  must  do  just  what  it  does,  and  take  its  own  time  for  doing 
it,  and  God  can  neither  change  nor  hasten,  but  "the  laws  of  Nature" 
must  have  their  way — and  then  Nature  is  all,  and  God  is  only  something 
they're  talking  about!  [Not  even,  the  "laws"  of  Nature,  but  only  Na- 
ture !] — And  a  God  only  makes  two  Infinites  to  account  for  ;  or  if  he,  or  it, 
is  not  an  Infinite,  that's  worse  yet !  Every  way,  a  God  is  impossible  ! 

There  is  no  more  a  God  than  there  is  a  Devil,  and  there  never  was  a 
God  any  more  than  there  was  a  Devil  !  How  have  men  grown  out  of 
devils  and  witches  and  imps  and  ghosts  ?  By  having  to  put  their  finger 
on  them,  and  point  them  out !  They  couldn't  point  out  nothing]  Put 
your  finger  on  God," and  point  him  or  it  out !  If  the  God  is  infinite, 
tell  us,  What  ?  if  the  God  is  finite,  tell  us,  Where?  Here  you  have  had 
the  whole  Universe  dissected,  and  everything  in  it,  so  that  you  could  see 
just  what  it  was,  and  how  it  was,  and  all  about  it — and  now,  Where  is  your 
God?  Nowhere,  there  is  no  God  ! 

"  Then  the  Universe  is  God."  Well,  at  last  anchor  you  there,  that  the 
Universe  is  all.  Though,  what  could  be  plainer,  or  more  apodictic  : 
Nothing  but  the  Universe — nothing  buteverything — and  then  nothing  but 
the  Everything  that  everything  makes  ! — And  then,  what  more  tell-tale,  or 
self-same,  than  this  same  statement  with  regard  to  God  :  Nothing  but 
everything  !  and  then  of  course  no  God — for  everything  is  not  a  God  ! — 
But  then,  equally,  what  more  imperative  than  the  same  statement  with 


21 

regard  to  calling  God  ?  using  the  word  God  :  Nothing  but  everything  ! 
but  everything  is  not  God!  everything  is  everything,  and  God  is  Goo I; 
and  then,  if  there  isn't  any  God,  why,  there  isn't  any  ! 

No  !  call  the  Universe  itself,  and  let  God  go  where  the  Devil  1ms  gone  ! 
The  Universe  is  no  more  God  than  it  is  the  Devil !  God  came  from  the 
heathen  ;  and  if  you  mean  no  more  by  it  than  the  Universe,  then  don'i 
steal  it  from  the  heathen  !  They  meant  by  it,  a  being,  who  made  the 
world,  and  did  up  things  generally ;  and  if  you  don't  believe  in  the, 
being,  then  hand  them  back  the  God  !  Now  that  you  have  given  up 
what  the  word  stood  for,  give  up  the  word.  Don't  go  on  making  God, 
not  only,  when  there  is  none,  but  when  the  one  there  tised  to  be  haw 
.  ceased  to  exist i  "Let  the  dead  bury  their  dead" — and  God  .go,  and 
done  with  it  I 

For  all  the  Gods  that  have  ever  been,  men  have  made.  And  it  is  time 
to  have  done  with  that  manufacture  !  Men  making  a  God  to  be  afraid 
of,  and  then  being  afraid  of  him  afcer  they  have  got  him  made  !  Day 
and  night  shrinking  from  him  in  terror,  quaking  like  an  aspen  at  the 
mere  mention  of  his  name,  and  driven  to  madness  through  tear  of  his 
hell — and  yet,  all  the  while  making  him!  Almost  dying  in  their  fright, 
and  yet  keeping  up  the  Bugaboo  that  scares  them  ! — And  men  making  a, 
God  to  be  a  mystery,  and  then  bothering  their  brains  everlastingly,  to 
see  into  that  mystery]  Making  something  they  can't  know  anything 
about,  because  it  is  all  nothing,  and  then  giving  themselves  up  from  earn- 
ing their  bread,  and  unable  to  sleep  nights,  for  trying  to  study  it  out ! 
Making  what  is  incomprehensible,  because  it  don't  exist  to  be  compre- 
hended, and  then  wearing  the  flesh  off  their  bones,  and  wasting  them- 
selves into  their  graves,  in  seeing  if  they  can't  understand  it  I  Like  on*-: 
in  a  deep  pit,  exerting  himself  to  the  utmost  to  see — straining  his  eye- 
to  look  through  a  hole  in  a  stone,  when  there  is  no  hole,  nor  stone  to 
have  a  hole  in  ! — And  now,  Spiritualists  and  Infidels  trying  to  get  up  \\ 
better  God — somehow  rational,  and  decent,  and  even  good — and  then  strut- 
ting around  as  if  they  had  done  some  great  thing  1  Like  a  whelp  with  it-- 
eyes not  yet  open,  moving  about,  not  knowing  but  it  is  as  large  as  it 
dam  1  A?  if  the  mistake  did  not  lie  in  having  any  God  !  As  if,  even  ;i 
good  God  did  not  open  the  door  to  all  the  bad  ones  !  As  if  there  could 
be  any  God  that  was  not  a  bad  one  !  As  if,  even  the  goad  God  was  no: 
after  all,  made  ! — And  at  last  Andrew  Jackson  Davis,  forever  ringing 
the  changes  on  that  eternally-reiterated  stupidity  of  his  own  brain, 
"Father-God  and  Mother-Nature"!  Continually  talking  something 
which  he  knows  nothing  about,  and  which  he  never  can  know  anything 
about,  because  there  is  nothing  to  know  anything  about!  Equally  veri- 
fying the  Orthodox  in,  "Something  out  of  Nothing ;"  and  Shakspeare 
in,  •" Muck  Ado  about  Nothing!"  Making  a  God,  for  thousands  of  de- 
luded victims  to  run  after,  and  hunt,  and  dream  they  have  found,  when 
after  all,  they  have  found  only  a  shadow  ;  but  a  shadow  that  has  cheated 
out  of  life,  and  themselves,  and  true  happiness  ! 

But  these  days  of  God-making  are  yet  to  be  overpast.  A  change  is 
coming,  though  distant,  far,  in  the  ages.  There  will  grow  a  Time  when 
men  shall  be  greater,  braver,  wiser ;  when  they  shall  dare  to  seek 
Truth,  and  they  shall  find  it;  wheu.  the)7  shall  grope  out  of  the  dark- 


22 

ness  of  this  long  Midnight,  and  emerge  into  the  brightening  and  glorious 
light  of  a  New  World  !  In  that  day,  the  good,  and  the  beautiful,  and 
the  holy,  now  saved  into  the  present,  but  looking  back  on  all  the  past, 
and  tracing  the  lootsteps  of  the  Race  through  the  hoary  centuries,  will 
say,  as  the  prompting  of  their  development,  and  the  outflow  of  their 
perfection,  and  as  the  only  divine  utterance  left  to  them — the  good,  and 
the  beautiful,  and  the  holy,  will  say,  Damn  any  God  !  And  God  will 
be  damned — the  name,  and  the  nothing — the  word,  and  what  it  stands 
for — to  everlasting  forgetfulness  ! 

But  that  will  be  a  great  day  when  the  world  comes  together  to  bury 
God  L  Then  the  long  account  of  Humanity  against  this  its  direst  and  its 
deadliest  foe,  will  be  settled.  Then  this  great  Woe  which  has  so  long- 
brooded  the  nations,  hanging  like  a  pall  of  night  over  earth's  fair  face,  to 
shroud  all  in  gloom,  and  wrap  all  in  sorrow,  will  be  forever  dissipated, 
that  the  sun  of  joy  and  gladness  may  shine  through  !  Then  this  infinite 
Incubus  which  has  bestrode  the  earth  like  some  grisly  but  invisible  Hor- 
ror, darting  death  before  him,  and  filling  men's  hearts  with  fear  and  fore- 
boding of  what  should  be  after  death — wrath  and  judgment — shall  be 
laid  to  a  sleep  that  knows  no  waking,  and  safely  and  surely  made  over  to 
the  dust  forever  !  Old  men  and  matrons,  young  men  and  maidens,  the 
lately  born,  the  soon  to  die,  the  bridegroom  and  the  bride — all  will  look 
into  the  grave-  together,  and  feel  that  now,  at  last,  there  is  an  end  of  the 
great  and  terrible  curse  !  And  the  world  will  breathe  freer  ! 


THERE  is  so  RELIGION  !  It  is  nothing  but  Superstition  1  Religion  is 
the  second  great  mistake  of  the  Age  of  Reason  !  There  is  no  God  ;  and 
then  the  Religion  which  has  grown  out  of  God,  is  all  a  manufactured 
sham,  a  silly  invention  !  It  is  a  Godless  thing ;  but  yet,  it  is  nothing  but 
God — and  then  the  sooner  we  have  done  with  it,  and  send  it  along  after 
God,  the  better  ! 

There  is  nothing  for  a  man  but  to  be  a  man.  Nothing  for  him  to  be- 
lieve, but  to  be  a  man — for  him  to  do,  but  to  be  a  man.  All  doctrines  but 
to  be  a  man,  are  fables — all  deeds  but  to  be  a  man,  tomfooleries  ! 

There  is  nothing  for  a  man  but  to  be  himself,  and  do  himself.  It  is 
all  he  exists  for.  He  is  his  own  Universe  ! 

There  is  nothing  for  a  man  but  to  be  Happy.  This  is  all  he  exists 
for.  Hupplness  is  his  Universe.  Happiness  is  his  own  very  existence  ! 

There  is  no  such  thing  to  Man  as  Duty.  There  is  nothing  above  Man 
to  make  Duty.  But  there  is  simply  Happiness,  Man's  own  Pleasure  ! 

There  is  no  such  thing  to  Man  as  Law.  But  he  is  Law.  It  is  still, 
nothing  but  his  own  Happiness  ! 

There  is  no  such  thing  to  AJan  as  Right  or  Wrong.  There  is  nothing 
to  make  Right  or  Wrong.  It  is  still,  only  that  same  Happiness  ! 

There  is  no  such  thing  to  Man  as  Sin.  There  is  nothing  to  make  Sin. 
Had  there  never  been,  any  God,  the  word  Sin,  never  would  have  been 
uttered — there  never  would  have  been  anything  for  it  to  stand  for.  Tho 
whole  story  is  still  told  in  that  same  Happiness.  It  is  only  that  Man 
mistakes  in  being  Happy  ;  he  does  what  at  last  cannot  make  him  Happy — 


23 

and  then  he  must  mend  his  mistake.  JSPNot  having  Happiness,  is  all 
that  is  out  of  the  way ;  and  then  getting  true  Happiness,  is  being  in 
the  way  ! 

There  is  no  such  thing  to  Man  as  Punishment.  It  is  only,  less  Hap- 
piness, from  making  that  mistake.  There  is  nothing  to  create  Punish- 
ment. The  old  God  used  to  punish,  but  he  was  a  tyrant  in  doing  so — 
he  simply  injured. 

There  is  no  such  thing  to  Man  as  Repentance.  Let  him  mend  his 
mistake,  but  not  sorrow  over  it.  He  cannot  afford  to  be  sorry,  for  he 
exists  to  be  Happy  ! 

There  is  no  other  Gospel  to  Man,  than  that  of  doing  the  best  thing  he 
can.  And  it  must  be  the  best  thing  he  can  do  now,  under  these  circum- 
stances. And  no  odds  what  it  is,  so  it  is  the  best  thing.  For  it  is  noth- 
ing but  Happiness,  after  all — it  is  simply,  what  will  truly  make  him 
Happy.  What  is  Best,  is  what  is  Happiness  ! 

And  then  there  is  no  such  thing  in  Man,  as  Conscience.  But  indeed, 
it  is  Circumspection,  or  Watchfulness — really  to  see  and  do  what  is 
Best.  To-day  I  change  the  name  of  that  organ,  and  my  changing  will 
stand  for  all  Time  ! 

Every  man  must  be  his  own  judge,  what  is  best.  And  then  he  must 
allow  every  -other  man  to  be  his  own  judge,  just  as  well.  And  then 
every  man  must  allow  every  other  to  do  what  to  him  is  best.  Each  has 
equal  claim,  because  to  each  it  is  Happiness.  But,  if  the  claims  of  two 
conflict — if  what  is  best  to  one,  is  the  reverse  of  best  to  another — 
then  let  them  mutually  harmonize  the  difference,  if  they  can  —  one  or 
both  give  way.  And  if  they  cannot,  then  let  them  do  as  they  must — but 
I  am  not  responsible.  Such  things  always  have  been,  and  they  still  will 
be — but  the  principle  must  yet  be  announced.  The  evil  is  not  in  the 
principle,  but  in  the  low  development  of  the  race.  And  Time  will  heal 
that.  And  then  all  will  be  Harmony. 

There  is  no  such  thing  to  a  man,  as  Accountability,  in  what  he  does. 
He  is  not  accountable  to  himself,  for  that  is  not  Accountability.  And  ! it- 
is  not  accountable  to  others,  nor  to  any  others  ;  because  at  last,  he  is 
only  himself,  and  equally  they  are  themselves:  and  then  each  one  must 
stand  out  alone,  to  be  his  own  being,  and  do  his  own  doing— exist  for 
himself  and  not  for  another.  And  even  if  one  does  what  you  do  not  call, 
Well,  but  on  the  contrary,  111,  yet,  you  must  bear  it;  as  he  also,  has  to 
bear  what  you  do,  that  is  not  Well,  but  111,  to  him.  And  if  neither  you 
nor  he  can  bear  it,  yet  that  is  not  my  matter — I  have  but  uttered  a  truth. 
Forevermore,  Accountability  is  dead:  every  man  is  his  utter  self;  and 
if 'every  man  is,  then  every  man  is — and  all  are  provided  for  ! 

There  is  no  such  thing  to  a  man,  as  Freedom,  in  what  he  does.  Bui 
he  does  what  he  has  to  do.  He  does  what  he  is  organized,  educated, 
and  situated,  to  do — and  there  is  no  help  for  it.  He  acts  out  his  inev- 
itable nature,  under  the  circumstances.  Be  sure,  he  always  does  as  he 
pleases,  but  that  is  precisely  it — he  lias  to  please  :  he  never  can  please 
to  do  anything  else,  than  just  what  he  does  !  And  then,  if  he  does  not 
please  to  do  what  we  call,  Well,  the  remedy  is  to  give  him  a  chance  to  be 
more  and  other,  than  he  is  now.  That  will  create  him  to  be  mure 
and  other  ! 


24 

Knowledge  is  the  grand  insurance  !  Next  after  Happiness,  there  is  no 
good  but  Knowledge  ;  and  next  after  t/rahappiness,  no  evil  but  Ignorance. 
All  men  do  as  well  as  they  know.  All  do  as  well  as  they  know  for  Hap- 
piness. The  mistakes  they  make  in  being  Happy,  are  all  because  they 
do  not  know.  Give  men  Knowledge,  and  they  will  be  Happy — for  they 
will  know  how  to  be.  Give  them  Knowledge,  and  they  will  help  others 
to  be  Happy — for  that  will  in  turn  help  them  to  be.  No  fear  that  men 
will  ever  injure  each  other,  when  they  have  Knowledge.  No  fear,  they 
will  not  benefit  each  other.  No  fear,  they  will  not  always  act  nobly, 
beautifully,  gloriously,  to  each  other  !  No  fear,  they  will  not  dry  up 
every  tear,  and  make  this  world  a  paradise  !  Knowledge  will  bring  all 
this,  and  nothing  but  Knowledge  will ! 

There  is  no  such  thing  as  Goodness  !  But  there  is  that  Happiness — 
and  that  is  all !  It  is  not  Goodness,  but  Good ;  but  at  last,  there  is  no 
other  Good  than  that  same  Happiness  !  Happiness  is  everything  ;  every- 
thing else  is  nothing  !  Sin,  Law,  and  Duty,  no  more  drop  out  of  exist- 
ence in  the  presence  of  Happiness,  than  does  Goodness ;  and  they  who 
believe  in  Goodness  must  open  their  eyes  to  see  that  there  is  a  higher 
development,  and  a  wider  generalization,  and  that,  in  the  final  analysis, 
everything  is  swallowed  up  and  lost  in  that  same  everlasting  Happiness  ! 
Call  Goodness  as  good  and  beautiful  and  holy  as  we  ever  -have  called  it, 
yet  it  has  grown  only,  out  of  God  and  Religion  ;  and  then  they  who 
have  thrown  off  those  old  clogs,  and  launched  forth  to  be  themselves, 
and  to  live  themselves,  must  away  with  whatever  would  still  enslave  them, 
and  resolve  everything  into  their  own  Happiness — Happiness  to  each, 
and  Happiness  to  all  !  Had  there  never  been  any  God,  there  would 
always  have  been,  only  men  ;  and  then  there  would  have  been  only  men's 
things  :  not  Duty,  and  Doing  Right,  first,  Loving  God,  and  then,  Loving 
Man,  and  so,  Doing  Good,  and  then,  Being  Good,  or,  Possessing  Good- 
ness— not  any  of  these  things,  but  only  men's  things :  Doing  as  they 
pleased,  Acting  out  their  natures,  Making  their  lives  a  bliss,  Riling  up 
the  cup  of  their  existence — in  one  word,  men's  Happiness,  and  how  to 
get  it !  But  now,  you  will  say  the  Goodness  still  exists,  even  in  these 
men's  things  ;  for  the  men  all  want  this  Happiness,  and  'then  they  ought 
to  help  each  other  to  get  it ;  and  likewise,  they  ought  not  to  hinder  each 
other  to  get  it — and  then  the  Goodness  consists  equally,  in  the  helping, 
and  not  hindering.  It  is  very  easy  for  you  to  say  this  now,  after  you 
have  bad  the  God,  and  have  thus  gotten  the  idea  of  Gcodness  in  the 
first  place  !  Starting  with  that  Goodness  as  Duty  to  God,  and  then 
making  it  $3Tjump  over  to  Duty  to  Man,  you  can  now,  with  all  ease, 
make  it  continue  Duty  to  Man,  even  after  entirely  giving  up  the  God 
with  which  it  started  !  Whereas,  if  there  had  never  been  a  God,  but 
only,  these  men,  they  would  never  have  thought  of  such  a  thing  as  Good- 
ness, but  only  of  that  Happiness,  and  how  to  get  it !  All  men,  and  then 
the  Happiness  of'all  men,  that  of  one  as  much  as  of  another  !  And  all 
men,  and  then  the  Happiness  of  all  men — and  then  each  mnn  to  look  out 
for  Happiness,  as  much  as  every  other  !  And  then,  no  thought  of  such 
a  thing  as  Duty  possible  to  interlope,  and  mix  with  that  simple  matter  of 
Happiness — some  obligation  laid  on  them  with  respect  to  it — and  espe- 
cially an  obligation  laid  on  them  by  something  that  didn't  exist !  No 


25 

dream  of  such  a  thing  as  Goodness,  nor  anything  else,  but  that  one  sim- 
ple thing  of  themselves — Happiness,  and  how  to  get  it !  If  you  had  said, 
Goodness,  to  them,  the  answer  would  have  been,  "Goodness?  what? 
Happiness  is  all  we  know  anything  about  !  "  And  so  the  man  is  no  phi- 
losopher, whose  crucible-fires  do  not  evaporate  Goodness,  and  distill  it  to 
perfect  gas  ;  leaving  only  in  his  vessel,  as  the  grand  residuum  of  all 
things,  to  himself  and  his  race — Happiness  of  Happiness  ! 

There  is  no  Brotherhood  of  Man  !  There  is  no  Fatherhood  of  God  ; 
and  the  Brotherhood  of  Man  springs,  immediately,  out  of  the  Fatherhood 
of  God  !  "  Let  no  one  call  God  his  Father,  who  calls  not  Man  his 
Brother,"  is  the  perpetual  refrain  of  Andrew  Jackson  Davis ;  and, 
"Divine  Fatherhood  and  Universal  Brotherhood,"  is  the  continual 
lifting-up  everywhere.  The  only  reason  why  all  men  have  been  ac- 
counted Brothers,  is  because  they  have  been  held  to  be  Children  of  one 
common  God,  possessed  of  his  divinity,  inheriting  his  spark  !  True, 
they  are  all  men,  and  not  brutes  ;  and  they  all  constitute  a  family  of 
men,  and  not  of  less,  or  other  than,  men — a  family  of  friends,  to  wish 
each  other  well,  and  help,  not  hinder,  that  mutual  Happiness,  But,  for 
ail  this,  they  are  not  Brothers,  equals,  other  selves,  one — but  only,  just 
such  friends.  "  All  men  are  created  equal" — enough  to  be  mm  ;  enough, 
then,  to  be  friends,  and  that  one  may  say  to  every  other,  Do  well,  be 
Happy,  climb  up,  I  encourage  you,  I  sympathize  with  you,  I  will  aid  you 
if  1  can  !  But  only  those  can  be  Brothers  who  stand  on  the  same  plane  ; 
who  have  an  equal  nature  and  development ;  who  feel,  each  the  other,  in 
himself;  who  are  at  last,  fused  and  welded  into  one  congeniality!  Hu- 
man Brotherhood  has  been  in  the  right,  in  basing  itself  in  the  oneness  of 
the  race  ;  but  that  oneness  is  false — and  then  the  Brotherhood  is  !  The 
Eace  have  grown  from  a  million  original  parents,  and  they  have  a  million 
different  natures,  from  next-door  to  brutality,  up  to  the  realization  of 
human-born  Philosophy  !  The  mighty  mass  of  men  have  their  choicest 
fellowship  with  the  animals  ;  and  then  they  do  not  lack  being  mated,  but 
verily,  they  are  all  Brothers  in  that  low  relationship  ;  while,  at  the  other 
extremity  of  the  chain,  there  are  some  who  have  almost  no  Brothers  ;  but 
there  they  are,  standing  out,  and  looming  up,  alone  !  The  Brotherhood 
of  Man — call  it  a  beautiful  doctrine,  kind,  benevolent —literally,  broth- 
erly :  but  wish  that  it  were  true  !  And  since  it  is  not  true,  call  it  an  ig- 
norant doctrine,  silly,  superstitious  !  And  call  it  a  better  doctrine,  to  be 
all  of  a  man  you  can  be,  even  if  it  leaves  you  not  one  Brother  !  There 
is  no  Brotherhood  of  Man  ! 

There  is  no  such  thing  as  treating  men  alike.  But  the  thing  is,  to 
treat  them  as  they  are — treat  them  as  men,  and  then  as  the  men  they  are. 
Treat  them  all  well,  and  beautifully,  and  for  friends — Brothers  if  they 
are  such.  But  if  not,  cast  not  your  pearls  before  swine — throw  not 
yourself  away.  Take  every  man  for  what  he  is,  and  not  for  what  he  is 
not.  And  then  treat  not  all  men  as  equals,  for  they  are  not. 

There  is  no  such  thing  as  "  Loving  our  neighbors  as  ourselves."  That 
is  making  all  men  equals — to  ourselves  ;  but  much  more,  to  each  other. 
"  Things  that  are  equal  to  the  same  thing,  are  equal  to  each  other."  To 
love  our  neighbors  as  ourselves  is  to  make  them  our  equals  ;  and  to  make 
them  all  such,  is  to  make  all  equal  to  each  other.  We  love  what  we 


26 

can,  and  what  we  must ;  and  then  happy  is  it  for  us  if  we  have  grown 
to  that  stature,  that  we  can  love  all  men  as  men,  and  then  as  the  men  they 
are.  More,  is  unreasonable,  and  silly. 

There  is  no  such  thing  as  "  Doing  to  others  as  we  would  have  others 
do  to  us."  That,  too,  is  making  all  men  equals.  It  is  classing  them  all 
together,  and  applying  the  same  rale  to  them  all.  It  is  saying,  Do  to 
him  who  is  only  your  friend,  as  you  would  to  him  who  is  your  perfect 
Brother,  if  they  are  in  the  same  circumstances.  It  is  saying,  Do  for  one 
who  is  of  no  use  in  the  world,  what  you  would  for  another,  who  is  of 
most  use  in  it.  We  do  to  every  man,  what  he  and  his  circumstances 
attract  us  to  do.  And  then,  if  he  and  his  circumstances  do  not  attract 
us  to  do  this,  that,  or  the  other,  to  him,  why,  that  is  the  end  of  it — there 
is  no  help  for  it !  And  we  do  to  every  man,  what  our  own  natures,  under 
all  the  circumstances, prompt  us  to  do.  And  then,  it  is  a  beautiful  develop- 
ment to  which  we  have  attained,  if  we  are  prompted  to  do  to  every  man, 
what  seems  the  mutual  asking  of  his  state,  our  state,  and  all  states — the 
mutual  fitness  of  things  !  It  is  the  same  statement  we  had  before — treat 
all  things  as  they  are,  and  not  as  they  are  not  Do  to  others  as  you  can, 
in  fitness  to  yourself — and  no  less  to  themselves.  More,  is  an  absurdity — 
and  ridiculous,  even  taking  themselves  for  the  standard.  For,  what  are 
they?  So  much.  Then  do  for  them  so  much — no  more  !  Once  and 
for  all,  don't  make  a  fool  of  yourself,  and  of  another  man,  too,  by  treat- 
ing him  as  he  isn't  /" 

There  is  no  such  thing  as  Living  to  do  good,  and  Giving  ourselves  up 
to  save  the  world.  It  is  all  "vicarious  atonement."  Instead  of  saving 
the  world,  we  exist  to  save  ourselves  ;  and  instead  of  living  to  do  good, 
we  exist  to  be  Happy  !  But  we  shall  do  good — and  at  last,  all  the  good 
we  ever  can  do — by  being  Happy  :  we  shall  save  others,  by  saving  our- 
selves. Our  Example  is  our  Sermon,  and  our  Charity.  We  shall  ben- 
efit others  most,  when  we  are  ourselves  what  we  wish  them  to  become. 
To  make  ourselves  great,  and  strong,  and  perfect,  and  Happy,  is  to  do  all 
we  can  ever  do  to  make  all  others  so.  For  if,  thinking  to  do  more  for  the 
race,  than  simply  to  round  ourselves  out  to  fullness,  and  thus  present  an 
example  of  perfection,  we  suffer  ourselves  to  go  beyond  our  true  harmony 
in  any  direction,  at  once  we  violate  the.  harmony,  and  sacrifice  the  whole 
example — J^"overdoing  is  undoing  !  Self-blessing  is  the  only  blessing  ; 
for  self-neglecting-or-injuring,  will  not  only  incapacitate  us  to  help  others, 
but  also,  and  equally,  teach  them  to  neglect  or  injure  themselves  !  [Like 
Theodore  Parker.]  There  h  no  philosophy  in  martyrdom  ;  but  on  the 
contrary,  Philosophy  will  say  that  all  the  martyrs  have  been  fools. 
Though,  if  they  found  their  Happiness  in  being  martyrs,  then  there  is 
nothing  more  to  say  ;  for  that  is  the  philosophy — to  be  Happy  !  We 
cannot  call  any  man  a  fool,  let  him  do  what  he  will — because  it  is  his 
Happiness  to  do  it;  we  can  only  say  that  we  should  be  fools  to  do  the 
same  thing,  and  that  we  think  he  would  have  been  one,  if  we  could  only 
have  told  him  so,  and  set  him  to  thinking  !  But  naturally,  we  must  say, 
that  it  is  not  the  fitness  of  things  to  be  a  martyr.  For,  why  should  one 
man  die,  to  save  another  from  dying  ?  or  suffer,  to  prevent  another's 
suffering?  or  do  himself  ill,  to  do  some  other  man,  good  ?  It  is  not 
what  we  exist  for,  thus  to  waste  and  despite  ourselves.  But  we  exist  to 


27 

build  ourselves  up — make  all  we  can  of  ourselves.  And  others  exist  i. 
do  the  some  for  themselves  ;  but  if  they  will  not — "  Let  every  man  hoe 
his  own  row  !  "  Every  man  must.  It  is  his  individuality,  his  selfhood, 
his  own  very  existence  !  And  where  the  same  fate  is  10  all,  the  same 
good  must  in  the  end  be  to  all — and  the  Eternal  Harmony  must  be  worked 
out.  Though,  even  if  not,  still  that  other  must  hold — that  atonement 
for  others  is  damned  !  ^3T"Let  all  other  men  be  unhappy,  but  7  am  noi 
to  be  unhappy  :  let  the  world  go  to  the  bottomless,  but  every  man  exists 
to  save  himself ! 

The  whole  and  the  solemn  truth  has  not  been  told  till  we  go  still  fur- 
ther. There  is  no  such  thing  as  "  Circumstances  altering  cases  !  "  Cir- 
cumstances make  cases  !  Circumstances  are  cases  !  Happiness  is  the 
All ;  and  what,  at  the  time,  in  the  place,  and  as  things  are  at  that  time, 
and  in  that  place,  will  yield  the  Happiness — if  they  were  the  last  words  1 
should  ever  speak — that  is  the  thing  to  be  done  !  No  matter  wln.t,  if  it 
be  only  that!  You  shall  see  for  yourselves  in  a  moment. 

And,  0  !  I  only  utter  a  truth  which  should  come  home  to  your  hearts 
like  tire,  and  which  men  everywhere  must  believe  before  they  can  work 
out  their  own  redemption,  when  I  make  another  statement.  "  The  end 
does  justify  the  means  !"  '  Tis  a  bad  word — "justify" — smacking  of 
Religion ;  but  the  end  makes  needful,  beautiful,  blissful,  the  means  ! 
Happiness  is  It ;  and,  "justify'1  or  no  •' justify,"  it  inevitatcs,  lhsn.es,  and 
seals,  what  will  yield  it  !  You  shall  know  what  1  mean,  and  how  I 
mean,  in  still  a  moment. 

And  yet  once  more,  I  will  try  to  make  the  statement  still  stronger.  ! 
will  try  to  couch  it  in  a  phrase,  which  shall  be  as  instantaneous  and  irre- 
sistible as  the  electric  spark  !  The  only  gospel  is,  Will  it  pay  ?  That 
is  all  a  man  exists  for,  Will  it  pay?  It  is  Happiness  again,  and  then  that 
is  it.  Will  it  pay  ?  It  never  pays  to  be  Unhappy  !  And  what  yields  Hap- 
piness, is  pay — against  the  Universe  !  Wait,  still  that  moment. 

And  at  last,  I  will  not  be  cowardly,  nor  shrink  from  speaking  a  still 
more  unpalatable  truth,  in  making,  yet  for  the  fourth  time,  a  statement — 
the  premise-of-all.  Self,  self,  self,  is  ail  !  There  is  nothing  but  sell';  our 
selfhood  is  our  own  very  existence  !  Not  selfishness  ;  but  still,  and  only, 
self  !  Self-upbuilding,  self- perfecting,  self- perpetuating,  self-happifying  ! 
Self,  everything  ;  and  everything  else,  nothing  but  to  bless  self  I  Self, 
the  Universe  ;  because  every  man  to  himself  is  the  Universe  !  For  that: 
is  still  it,  that  Happiness  is  All  ;  and  Happiness  is  self,  and  self  is  all  ! 
Happiness  is  the  heart's  core  of  the  heart's  core  of  every  man  !  And  now 
for  the  vindication. 

Behold,  how  there  is  no  limit  to  a  man  in  the  matter  of  his  own  Individ- 
ualness  !  A  thousand  millions  of  inhabitants  on  Earth,  but  each  one, 
Individual — each  one,  the  man  I  am  going  to  describe  !  But  he  stands 
out  alone  !  He  is  himself,  and  not  anybody  else  ;  and  then  he  will  ac! 
himself,  and  not  anybody  else.  It  is  not  what  others  want  done,  but 
what  he  wants  ,  not  what  they  think,  but  what  himself  thinks.  What  if 
the  thing  was  never  done  before,  and  somebody  else  never  thought  of 
doing  it? — he  docs  think  of  it,  and  it/is  his  to  make  the  experiment  ! 
What  if  the  thing  has  been  done  before,  and  somebody  else  don't  like 
it  ? — the  not  liking  it,  is  somebody  eke'  business  :  the  doing  it,  is  his  bu- 


28 

siness  !  And  so  it  is  his  to  do  new  things,  and  leave  everybody  else  to 
go  behind  ;  or  to  do  old  things,  and  let  everybody  else  go  before — just 
as  he  likes.  It  is  as  long  as  it  is  broad  :  doing  what  he  does,  would  not 
make  others  Happy  ;  and  doing  what  others  do,  would  not  make  him 
Happy  !  And  so  it  is  for  him  to  act  out  his  nature,  and  learn  others  to  act 
out  theirs.  It  is  not  even  for  him  to  act  out  human  nature  ;  but  only,  and 
always,  his  own.  Prove  to  him  that  all  men,  in  all  ages,  have  been  against 
him — that  verily,  he  is  running  counter  to  the  united  voice  of  humanity 
everywhere — and  what  is  it  to  him,  so  long  as  he  only  obeys  the  instinct 
of  his  own  nature  ?  If  his  nature  is  human,  it  is  well ;  but  if  not,  it  is  yet 
his.  Prove  to  him  that  what  will  be  human  nature  in  the  future,  when 
men  shall  have  been  made  perfect  in  that  great  Progression,  is  against 
him  ;  and  what  have  you  done,  any  more  ?  For  that  future  nature  still  is 
not  his  ;  and  to  himself,  his  must  forever  be  higher  than  that !  It  is  for 
him  to  do  now,  what  men  will  not  do  in  the  future  ;  and  it  is. for  him  to  do 
now,  what  he  would  not  do  then  !  He  don't  live  in  the  future,  and  then  it 
is  not  for  him  to  do  in  the  future  :  lie  lives  now,  and  then  it  is  for  him  to  do 
now  !  It  is  for  him  to  act  out  the  nature  he  has,  and  the  mind  he  is  in.  If 
he  is  in  the  mood  to  sit  idle  an  hour,  and  do  what  men  would  call,  icaste.  so 
much  of  his  life,  it  is  his  to  do  it — that  is  what  he  exists  for  ;  it  is  himself 
to  do  that.  And  unheard-of  tilings,  and  things  that  other  men  dare  not  do,  if 
he  is  in  the  mood,  it  is  his  to  do  them,  because  it  is  still  himself.  He  is  not 
to  allow  anything  to  come  between  him  and  that.  He  is  to  know  nothing 
above  him ;  but  to  put  all  men,  and  all  things,  even  Truth,  and  the 
very  Universe,  under  him — be  himself  over  all  things,  and  any  way  be 
himself!  He  is  not  to  do  a  thing  at  one  time,  because  he  would  approve 
it  at  another;  nor  refrain  from  doing  it  at  one  time,  because  he  would  dis- 

•  • 

approve  it  at  another.  j£3F~He  is  not  to  be  consistent — his  only  consistency 
is  always  to  be  himself,  and  his  only  approval  always  to  be  himself;  and 
his  only  ^approval,  not  to  be  himself ! 

At  any  one  time,  he  will  do  the  best  thing.  If  not  what  might  be  the 
best,  yet  at  last,  what  is  the  best.  And  there  is  absolutely  nothing — no 
act — which  may  not  be  best.  The  best  thing  is  to  be  Happy  !  The  best 
thing  is  to  live — save  life — to  be  Happy  !  The  best  thing  is  to  save  life 
and  be  Happy  !  And  then  he  will  do  it.  He  will  never  commit  mur- 
der, because  that  other  man  is  to  live  and  be  Happy,  equally  with  him- 
self. He  cannot  kill  him,  because  that  would  be  against  himself ;  as 
being  against  one  who  is  so  far,  part  of  himself.  But,  if  he  or  another 
must  die,  he  will  not  say  that  it  shall  be  he.  Though  it  be  the  one  who 
has  lain  in  his  bosom,  dearest  to  him,  of  all  the  world,  he  will  not  say 
that  it  shall  be  he.  And  the  other  will  not  say  that  it  shall  be  she.  Each 
will  live  as  long  as  there  is  power.  Cast  them  into  the  jaws  of  death 
together,  with  escape  for  but  one,  and  he  will  save  himself  if  he  can,  though 
compelled  to  leave  the  other  to  her  fate  !  But  let  him  by  set  upon  by  any 
one  who,  for  any  cause,  will  kill  him,  and  if  he  will  kill  him — when 
worst  comes  to  worst,  if  it  ever  can  come  to  that,  yet  he  will  live  !  He 
will  do  aU  else — but  still  he  will  live  !  He  will  take  a  life,  or  a  thousand 
of  them,  if  it  is  the  best  thing  he  can  do.  If  men  will  kill  him  if  he 
tells  the  truth,  he  will  not  tell  it — he  will  say  nothing.  If  they  will  kill 
him  if  he  does  not  deny  the  truth,  he  will  not  deny  himself ;  but,  he  will 


29 

say  that  he  is  more  than  all  the  truth  in  the  Universe  !  He  will  say  that 
the  truth  is  for  him,  and  not  he  for  the  truth  !  He  will  tell  a  lie  it'  it  is 
all  there  is  for  him  ;  for  he  will  still  live  the  truth,  and  the  only  thing1 
that  can  be  truth  to  him.  If  he  will  deceive  a  tiger  that  will  kill  him, 
then  will  he  deceive  a  man  that  will  do  the  same  thing.  He  will  never 
ravish  one,  for  that  would  be  against  himself,  as  being  against  the  one 
he  ravished  ;  and  he  will  never  have  sensual  union  with  any,  even  the 
one  he  is  joined  to — for  that,  too,  would  be  against  himself,  as  being  an 
animal.  But,  if  men  could  have  the  power,  and  would  kill  him,  if  he 
had  not  union  with  some  one  who  could  be  persuaded  to  his  need,  as  it' 
she  was  saving  her  own  life  in  saving  his,  both  he  and  she  would  do  so — 
and  then  they  would  look  up  to  the  Stars  and  feel  that  they  were  noble  ! 
And  should  offspring  come  from  their  meeting,  it  would  be  holy  !  If 
men  will  kill  him,  if  he  does  not  kill  himself,  like  Socrates,  or  John 
Brown,  he  will  still  live — they  must  do  the  killing  !  They  shall  never 
deprive  him  of  his  life,  till  they  require  him  to  do  something  against 
himself.  To  live  and  be  Happy,  he  will  dare  and  do  everything — even  to 
what  may  make  a  whole  world  of  common  mortals  shrink  back  and 
shudder — short  of  himself  sacrificing  that  very  Happiness  !  That  Hap- 
piness is  all  that  is  sacred  to  him  in  the  Universe  !  That  is  all  he  exists 
for  !  And  then,  when  he  can  possess  that  no  longer,  he  will  no  longer 
wish  to  exist !  It  will  then  be  as  much  himself  to  cease  from  suffering, 
as  before,  it  was  to  go  on  in  enjoying.  And  so,  when  he  is  slowly  dying 
of  cancer,  or  some  other  incurable  and  torturing  malady,  he  will  be 
brave,  and  patient,  and  Happy,  as  long  as  he  can  :  he  will  long  enjoy, 
from  his  greatness  of  soul,  in  spite  of  his  body  [that  is,  his  pain']  :  but, 
when  his  courage  becomes  exhausted,  that  he  can  bear  no  more,  but  at 
last  it  does  not  pay,  but  costs  more  than  it  comes  to — then  he  will  take  a 
cordial,  and  go  to  sleep  !  And  the  poison-draught  shall  be  to  him  the 
Elixir  of  Life  !  He  will  die  to  be  Happy,  as  he  lived  to  be — die  to  be; 
still  himself  !  And  what  he  is,  every  man  is  :  the  Individuality  of  one, 
is  the  Individuality  of  all — and  the  Happiness  of  each,  is  the  rounded 
Harmony  of  the  VVhole  ! 

[Or,  equally,  should  his  body  be  paralyzed,  to  utter  helplessness — 
rather  than  drag  .out  long  years,  of  no  use  to  himself,  and  continual 
trouble  to  others,  he  would  have  recourse  to  the  same  sure  deliverance, 
through  the  gateway  of  death  !  Or,  if  age  was  superinducing  total  decay 
of  his  faculties,  rather  than  reach  the  final  result,  he  would  choose  this 
same  more  speedy  relief — the  oblivion  of  the  grave  rather  than  that  of 
his  faculties  !  Or,  if  the  dreadful  horrors  of  hydrophobia  were  on  him, 
he  would  bless  the  pistol  that  in  his  own  hand  should  put  an  instant  end 
to  them  !  He  would  not  suffer  agony,  when  he  could  sleep  !  And,  if 
he  must  die  at  any  rate,  no  matter  when  or  where  or  how,  if  he  cared,  he 
would  choose  his  death  ! — So  also,  if  he  owed  debts,  ever  so  honestly  ; 
though  he  would  pay  them  if  he  could,  yet  if  he  could  not,  he  would  not 
distress  himself  on  that  account — neither  injuring  himself  to  pay  them, 
nor  suffering  unhappiness  because  he  could  not.  If  he  owed  one  who 
did  not  need — however  he  might  want — he  would  make  his  own  Absolute 
need  his  only  consideration  ;  for  he  would  say  he  had  a  right  to  live, 
and  not  be  sacrificed,  even  if  the  other  went  without  his  due,  which  he 


did  not  need  !  But  even,  if  be  owed  one  who  did  need,  ever  so  sorely,  stili 
he  would  preserve  his  soul  in  that  perfect  Happiness;  for  he  would  say, 
"  If  I  wreck  another,  it  yet  is  not  I  that  wreck  him,  but  the  Universe  that 
first  wrecks  met  '  Necessity  knows  no  law,'  and  I  still  exist  to  be  Happy  ! 
The  other  must  do  as  /  have  to  do — he  must  do  as  he  must !  But  Jet 
him  be  Happy  in  doing  it ;  or,  if  he  can't,  yet  I  can — and  that,  in  a  lower 
must  than  his !  " — If  he  owed  letters,  that  indeed  ivere  owed,  and  that  all 
men  would  blame  him  for  not  writing — even  letters  to  the  narrowest  and 
most  sacred  circle  of  those  that  had  claims  on  him — yet  if  he  could  not 
write  them,  without  injustice  to  himself,  he  would  not ;  but  he  would 
still  brave  all,  in  being  a  philosopher  !  [Not  as  Humboldt,  who  answered 
4,000  letters  a  year.] — As  also,  he  would  do,  at  one.  time — from  lo-ng- 
unsatisfied  and  continually-increasing  demand  of  some  passion  of  his 
soul — something  utterly  opposed  to  all  he  had  done  in  his  whole  life  be- 
fore !  He  would  act  in  direct  contradiction  to  his  record  of  so  many 
years  !  For  he  would  still,  only  be  doing  what  it  was  his  nature  to  do — 
his  nature  to  do  then  :  as  before,  he  had  only,  always  done  what  it  was 
his  nature  to  do  before.  And  then  he  would  still  be  consistent,  in  being 
kimaelf — as  consistent  now,  as  he  ever  was. — And  all  men  yet  will  thus 
be  them  selves,  and  nothing  else  ;  and  that  is  what  the  world  has  yet  to 
learn,  that  this  is  all  that  men  exist  for  !] 

And  now,  we  are  coming  to  the  end.  It  is,  that,  so  far  from  a  man 
existing  to  have  anything  to  do  with  such  a  thing  as  Religion,  his  only 
business  in  this  world  is  to  take  his  comfort.  Next  after  existing  because 
he  must — because  it  is  the  Universe  he  should — he  exists  alone  for 
Pleasure  !  He  is  here  to  put  his  foot  on  doctrines,  and  creeds,  and  du- 
ties, and  ceremonies  ;  and  to  give  himself  up  to  drinking  in  Delight  ! 
He  is  here  to  enjoy  himself';  to  gratify  his  nature  ;  to  satisfy  its  craving  ; 
to  fill  himself  with  good.  It  is  all  he  has  to  do,  to  do  what  will 
please  him  !  It  is  all  he  has  to  fear,  to  fear  that  he  shall  not  be  pleased 
enough  !  Instead  of  weeping  and  crying  for  his  "  sins,"  he  is  not  to 
weep  nor  cry  for  anything.  Instead  of  mourning  and  heaviness,  he  is 
to  put  on  laughter  and  mirth  !  He  is  to  be,  always  and  only,  cheerful 
and  light-hearted  and  joyous.  He  is  never  to  be  in  .trouble,  and  he  is 
never  to  know  sorrow.  That  is  not  what  he  exists  for  !  When  his 
friends  die,  or  any  blow  falls,  he  is  not  to  sink  and  suffer,  for  he  cannot 
afford  to — still  it  is  not  what  he  exists  for  !  But  he  is  to  be  glad  and 
Happy  then — surely  he  does  not  exist  to  grieve  a  moment !  If  ever  his 
heart  melts,  and  his  eyes  fill,  though  it  must  be  for  emotion,  yet  it  must 
be  only  for  joy— for  he  is  born  to  be  the  Child  of  Joy !  He  is  born  to 
be  the  Child  of  Blessing,  and  not  of  Cursing,  every  day  of  his  existence  ! 

That  very  existence  is   to  be   a  Bliss,  a   Rapture  !     At  last,  his   destiny 
rises  to  perpetual  Transport !     Religion  for  such  a  being  as  he  ! 

And  the  end  is,  that,  instead  of  having  anything  to  do  with  the  God 
of  Religion — looking  to  him,  leaning  on  him,  giving  up  life  to  him — a 
man  should  declare  independence,  and  set  up  for  himself  !  This  is  what 
he  exists  to  be,  this  is  what  he  is — himself.  And  then  let  him  be  him- 
self. God  is  dea  1 ;  he  is  the  Universe — and  now  let  him  launch  out ! 

Let  him  dare  ;  let  him  soar  ;  let  him  mine  !     Let  him  be  infinitely  more 


31 

than  all  the  Gods  men  ever  heard  of !  Let  him  indeed  be  his  own  Uni- 
verse, his  own  Omnipotence,  his  own  Sufficiency,  his  own  Satisfying  ! 
Ii3t  him  make  his  own  decrees,  and  fate  things  as  he  will  have  them, 
and  fashion  them  after  his  pleasure  !  Let  him  lay  his  hand  on  the  Earth, 
and  extort  from  it  its  secret ;  let  him  reach  forth  to  the  Stars,  and  master 
all  their  mysteries — let  him  bring  to  light  the  things  that  have  been 
hidden  in  the  depths  since  the  Universe  was  !  Let  the  eternities  be  his 
home  ;  let  him  be  lord  of  all  that  is  in  immensity — let  him  be  king  in 
his  own  realm,  and  that  realm  the  infinite  !  Let  him  be  what  I  cannot 
speak  him,  but  what  my  soul  knows  he  will  yet  become  !  And  then,  is 
it  such  a  being  you  would  have  come  down  to  the  little  bit  of  a  nothing 
called  a  God — the  phantom-God  of  Religion — and  dwarf  himself  to  stii! 
lower  than  the  God,  and  then  look  up,  and  stand  in  awe,  and  accept  the 
chains  of  a  slave,  forever  sacrificed,  and  there  on  that  altar  ?  No  man 
can  be  a  man  who  has  a  God  ;  no  man  can  be  a  man  who  has  any  Reli- 
gion !  0  !  man,  whoever  thou  art,  that  confessest  to  God  and  Religion, 
thou  art  nothing  but  a  miserable  slave!  Spiritualist,  Infidel,  1  must 
speak  the  truth  ! 

"  Be  free,  0  !  Man,  be  FREE  !  " 

But  the  ages  roll  on,  and  the  Race  will  yet  try  what  they  can  do  without 
Religion  !  They  will  grow  to  be  themselves,  and  to  look  after  themselves. 
They  will  live  to  do  themselves  good,  and  make  themselves  Happy. 
They  will  deck  life  with  joy,  and  existence  with  sunshine  !  They  will 
fill  up  the  cup  !  They  will  make  earth,  Heaven  ! 


THERE  is  NO  ETERNAL  WORLD  !  It  is  nothing  but  a  myth  of  men's 
brains  !  An  Eternal  World  is  the  third  and  last  great  mistake  of  the 
Age  of  Reason  !  God  has  gone,  and  the  Eternal  World  goes  with  him, 
for  the  Eternal  World  grew  only,  out  of  him  ! 

It  is  apodictic.  There  has  been  an  Eternal  God,  and  then  there  has 
been  an  Eternal  World  for  him  to  be  in  :  'he  has  eternally  existed  in  that 
World,  and  then  there  has  eternally  been  the  World  wherdn  he  has  ex- 
isted :  he  will  eternally  exist  in  that  World,  and  then  there  will  eternally 
be  the  World  wherein  he  wi/l  exist !  That  is  the  argument.  But  now, 
there  has  been  no  Eternal  God,  and  then  there  has  been  no  Eternal  World 
for  him  to  be  in  :  he  has  not  eternally  existed  in  that  World,  and  then 
there  has  not  eternally  been  the  World  wherein  lie  has  existed  :  he  will  not 
eternally  exist  in  that  World,  and  then  there  will  not  eternally  be  the 
World  wherein  he  will  exist  !  The  God  is  not,  and  then  the  World  is 
not;  the  God  has  not  been,  and  then  the  World  has  not  been  ;  the  God 
will  not  be,  and  then  the  World  will  not  be  !  Eternal  God  and  Eternal 
World  came  together,  but  neither,  ever  came  at  all :  Eternal  God  and 
Eternal  World  are  one,  but  both  are  nothing  !  There  is  no  Eternal  God  : 
the  Eternal  World  is  an  appendage  of  the  Eternal  God,  and  then  there  is 
no  Eternal  World — when  the  Eternal  God  goes,  the  Eternal  World  goes 
with  him  ! 

It  is  only  the  fact  of  a  God,  that  ever  made  an  Eternal  World.  But 
when  they  made  their  God,  they  had  to  make  a  World  for  him  to  be  in  ; 


32 

and  if  the  God  was  Eternal,  so,  likewise,  had  the  World  to  be.  The 
fact  that  the  God  had  always  existed,  was  the  proof  that  the  World  had 
always  existed  :  the  fact  that  the  God  always  would  exist,  was  the  proof 
that  the  World  always  would  exist.  They  could  not  have  the  God,  with- 
out having  him  exist  in  the  future,  as  well  as  the  past  ;  and  then  they 
had  to  have  the  World  exist  in  the  future,  as  well  as  the  past :  they 
could  not  have  the  God  without  having  him  Immortal,  and  then  they 
had  to  have  the  World,  Immortal — the  Immortal  God  is  the  sole  source 
of  the  Immortal  World  !  There  is  no  Immortal  God  ;  and  then  there  is  no 
Immortal  World — Immortal  God  and  Immortal  World  are  one  !  When 
goes  Immortal  God,  Immortal  World  goes  with  him  ! 

1  give  you  warning  !  Beware  for  your  dear  Immortality,  for  it  is 
going  to  be  taken  away  from  you  !  Brave  men  do  not  care,  for  they  are 
great  and  strong  ;  but  you  who  quake  and  fear,  as  if  the  breath  of  anni- 
hilation was  already  passing  by,  rouse  you,  and  ward  off  the  threatened 
doom  !  Spiritualists,  Infidels,  all  come  forth  from  your  hiding-places, 
and  meet  this  grand  battle  of  the  wurld  !  Let  the  infinite  generations  be 
summoned  to  the  conflict.  Immortality  is  now  to  do  or  die  ! 

It  is  the  Eternal  God  that  makes  the  Eternal  World  ;  and  it  is  the  Im- 
mortal God  that  makes  the  Immortal  World — and  then  if  there  is  no  Im- 
mortal God,  there  is  no  Immortal  World.  And  if  there  is  no  Immortal 
World,  then  there  is  nothing  Immortal  in  that  World  !  It  is  only  the 
fact  of  a  God  existing  in  an  Immortal  VVorld,  that  ever  made  anything 
else  exist  in  it.  But,  when  they  made  God  exist  in  it,  then  they  had  to 
make  themselves  and  all  other  things  exist  in  it,  with  him  !  The  ration- 
ale is  perfect.  It  stares  you  in  the  face.  I  challenge  you  to  meet  it ! 

You  and  all  things,  Immortal,  just  because  God  was  !  You  and  all 
things,  existing  in  an  Immortal  World,  just  because  he  did  !  Existing 
with  a  being  that  didn't  exist !  And  existing  with  him  in  a  World  that 
didn't  exist !  And  then  nothing  existing  with  him  in  a  World  that  didn't 
exist !  Nothing  existing  with  nothing,  nowhere!  Or,  if  you  will  have  it 
reduced  to  still  lower  terms.  Keeping  company  with  nothing  i  And 
nothing  keeping  company  with  nothing  !  And  nothing  keeping  company 
with  nothing,  nowhere!  But  this  is  the  sole  source  of  Immortality! 
Resist  it  if  you  can  ! 

Everything  has  come  from  the  God,  that  now,  you  yourself  have  dis- 
carded ;  and  then  everything  must  go  with  the  God.  There  is  no  salvation 
for  Immortality,  without  reviving  the  old  God  of  the  heathen  !  It  is  not 
one  or  the  other  ;  it  is  both  or  neither.  And  it  is  not  both — and  then  it 
is  not  one  ! 

But  there  is  a  Universe ;  and  what  says  that  about  an  Eternal  World  ? 
The  Universe  is  Eternal ;  and  then  it  is  made  up  of  everla-ting  succession, 
and  not  everlasting  continuance  :  it  is  endless  change,  and  not  endless 
•vow. eness  ;  endless  many,  and  not  endless  one  :  and  at  once,  it  is  not  an 
Eternal  World,  or  number  of  Eiernal  Worlds,  but  an  Eternal  Series  of 
Worlds.  Instead  of  always,  any  one  VVorld,  it  is  always,  continually- 
new  Worlds,  coming  and  going,  one  after  another,  forever.  So  that  there 
is  no  one  World  in  the  Universe  that  is  Eternal,  and  then  there  is  no 
Eternal  Wurld;  but  all  the  Worlds,  and  all  the  States,  and  all  the 
things,  to  absolute  everything,  are  temporal  and  changing,  existing  for 


33 

but  a  brief  space  themselves,  and  then  followed  by  others.  The  Uni* 
verse  is  Eternal,  and  then  nothing  else  is  i 

And  so  is  the  Universe  Immortal,  (for  that  is  the  same  thing,)  and 
then  nothing  else  is.  There  is  no  Immortal  World  in  it,  nor  Immortal  tiling 
in  it.  There  is  no  Immortal  State,  nor  Immortal  being.  The  Immortality 
of  the  Universe  rules  out  all  other  Immortality,  as  its  Eternity  does  all 
other  Eternity.  And  then  the  Immortality  of  the  Universe  rules  out 
Immortality  ! 

If  there  is  a  Universe,  there  must  be  Material ;  and  if  there  is  an 
Eternal  Universe,  there  must  be  Eternal  Material.  There  must  always 
be  Matter;  and  then  the  Matter  of  each  thing  or  being,  must  always  </o 
back  to  its  condition  before  it  was  that  thing  or  being.  If  it  does  not  go 
back,  the  Material  will  become  exhausted — there  will  not  always  be  Mat- 
ter. So  that  the  Matter  of  every  World  and  being,  goes  back  ;  and  then 
there  is  no  Eternal  World,  nor  eternal  being.  And  likewise,  the  Matter 
of  every  World  and  being  goes  back,  and  then  there  is  no  Immortal 
World,  nor  Immortal  being.  Call  it  Eternity,  or  Immortality,  it  is 
equally  impossible — it  is  the  very  destruction  of  the  Universe  ! 

So  does  the  Universe  demonstrate  Immortality  impossible,  in  that 
grand  demonstration  of  the  soul  of  man — what  it  is,  whence  it  comes, 
and  whither  it  goes  !  It  is  the  soul  that  is  to  be  Immortal ;  but  the  Uni- 
verse steps  in,  and  says,  /  claim  this  soul  ;  I  made  it ;  it  is  part  of  my 
Matter  ;  and  then  it  must  come  back  to  me,  like  all  other  Matter  !  .Mind, 
Soul,  Spirit,  it  is  all  one,  and  it  is  all  one  with  Intelligence  ;  and  Intelli- 
gence is  sheer  and  absolute  Matter.  All  Matter  is  Intelligence  ;  but,  as 
it  ascends  to  higher  and  higher  organisms,  it  develops  higher  and  higher 
Intelligence,  and  is  it;  until,  in  Man's  organism,  it  is  Thought,  Sensa- 
tion, Volition,  Intellection,  Love,  Joy,  Hope,  Fear— the  whole  of  this 
which  we  call  Mind,  Soul,  Spirit !  It  is  the  very  organization  of  Man  to 
organize  all  this  ;  and  then  it  is  the  very  Matter  of  Man  to  be  all  this  ! 
Not  to  be  all  this,  would  be  not  to  be  this  organism  we  all  are.  It  is  as 
much  this  organism  to  be  all  this,  as  it  is  the  organism  of  a  tree  to  be  a 
tree,  or  that  of  a  cabbage  to  be  a  cabbage.  It  is  just  as  much  this  organ- 
ism to  do  all  that  Man  does — j£^~even  to  those  very  things  claimed  to 
constitute  him  an  Immortal  being — as  ?t  is  that  of  the  tree  to  shoot  out 
branches  and  put  forth  leaves,  or  that  of  the  cabbage  to  head  up,  or  that 
of  every  plant  to  suck  up  water  through  its  root's,  or  that  of  a  flower  to 
bloom,  or  that  of  grass  to  grow  in  blades,  or  that  of  anything  to  do  any- 
thing. And  then,  when  this  organism  dies,  dissolves,  goes  back —  Where 
will  the  soul  be  ?  and  Echo  says,  Where  ?  and  the  Universe,  that  commands 
all  men's  organisms  back,  says,  Where  ? — and  what,  do  you  say  ?  Tell 
me — where  goes  the  soul  when  the  organism  goes  ?  Tell  me — where  is 
the  soul  when  the  organism  goe£  ?  Where  is  the  soul  when  there  is  no 
organism — because  it  has  already  gone  ?  When  what  was  the  organism 
is  nothing  and  nowhere,  or  scattered  over  ten  thousand  miles,  then  what 
has  become  of  that  "  immortal  soul?"  It  is  immortal — in  those  ele- 
ments— scattered  over  a  thousand  leagues  !  It  has  gone  back  !  It  is 
now,  no  more  !  It  died  when  live  organism  died  ;  it  dissolved  when 
it  dissolved  ;  it  was  scattered  when  it  was  scattered  !  It  is  now  growing 
into  other  organisms  ;  into  a  tree,  into  a  cabbage,  into  a  man  !  It  is  be- 
3 


34 

coming  a  part  of  other  souls,  to  live  and  die  and  do  as  it  has  done  !  And 
so  it  is  becoming  part  of  a  greater  and  more  glorious  Immortality — that 
of  the  Universe  ! 

So  that  a  man  has  a  soul,  if  you  please  to  call  it  so  ;  only,  it  is  not 
Immortal !  But  on  the  contrary,  all  organisms  die  ;  and  then  man's 
organism  does.  And  when  man's  organism  dies,  his  soul  dies — it  is  all 
one  death.  So  that  his  soul  is  as  Immortal  as  his  organism  ;  but  not  as 
Immortal  as  the  Universe,  which  swallows  up,  and  dissipates,  and  re- 
comprehends,  all  organisms  !  And  then,  forever,  there  is  no  Immortal 
World,  nor  Immortal  being  dwelling  in  one  !  The  Universe  has  set  that 
at  rest,  by  its  own  fundamental  fact  of  developing  Intelligence  ! 

[And  then  all  the  trouble  in  talking  about  the  soul,  is  calling  it  an  im- 
mortal and  not  a  mortal  one  !] 

There  is  no  such  thing  as  a  great  haystack  of  fine  Matter,  nor  a  moun- 
tain of  it,  somewhere  in  the  Universe,  all  "  salted  down"  and  ready, 
where  they  can  go  and  cut  off  a  slice,  every  time  they  want  to  make  a 
spirit — every  time  a  child  is  to  be  born.  There  was  no  such  fine  Matter 
to  make  the  God  out  of;  and  now,  there  is  none  to  make  a  spirit  out  of. 
But  spirits  are  made  out  of  the  universal  Matter,  like  everything  else.  It 
is  not  the  matter  which  constitutes  the  Intelligence,  but  it  is  the  organiza- 
tion. The  same  clay  of  the  street,  which  bears  the  tramp  of  a  horse,  in 
my  cheek  would  feel  the  touch  of  a  finger,  or  the  point  of  a  pin.  The 
same  iron  that  a  sledge  cannot  dent,  in  my  nose  would  be  sensitive  to 
the  aroma  of  flowers ;  and  in  my  brain,  to  the  thought  of  another  brain  ! 
Organization  creates  the  human  soul  ;  and  then  equally,  disorganization 
will  destroy  it. 

And  even,  if  there  was  fine  Matter,  it  must  have  grown  into  your 
"  spirits,"  ahoays ;  for  there  is  the  same  reason.  And  then,  because 
your  spirits  cannot  go  back,  the  Mailer  must  have  become  exhausted  ;  so 
that,  even  if  there  was  some,  once,  yet  there  is  none,  now.  And  if  you 
say  that  verily,  the  spirits  have  been  in  existence  always,  how,  where,  and 
what  doing?  and  what  do  you  know  about  any  such  thing?  It  is  all 
nonsense,  stuff,  imposition  ! 

But  even,  if  your  spirits  have  been  in  existence  always,  yet  they  have 
always,  and  just  as  much,  been  unconscious  ;  and  then  it  has  been  noth- 
ing to  them  that  they  were  in  existence  !  They  might  as  well  have 
waited  and  been  manufactured  out  of  the  haystack  !  The  whole  thing- 
is  so  much  moonshine  ;  and  you  are  driven  to  it,  only  to  uphold  Immor- 
tality !  It  is  a  bad  cause,  which  needs  such  help  ! 

Parents  are  the  generators  of  spirits  !  Parents  give  existence  to  human 
souls,  as  well  as  bodies  ;  for  soul  and  body  are  all  one.  If  men  are  not 
the  creators  of  their  children's  soul*,  then  there  is  no  truth  in  Hereditary 
Descent.  It  is  impossible  that  one  man  should  stamp  his  qualities  on 
another  man's  mind,  unless  he  creates  that  mind  !  But  human  beings 
do  not  create  each  other,  until  they  themselves  first  exist ;  nor  until  they 
come  together,  two-and-two,  in  the  great  Sacrament  of  Parentage.  And 
then  spirits  are  only  man-made  institutions  ;  as  a  babe  is  after  all,  nothing 
but  '•  a  great  institution  !  " 

What  has  a  beginning,  must  have  an  end.  And  then  a  man's  exist- 
ence must  have  an  end,  because  it  had  a  beginning.  The  eternities  must 


35 

balance  :  what  is  forever,  one  way,  must  be,  the  other  way  ;  and  what  is 
not  forever,  both  ways,  cannot  be,  either  way.  What  has  one  end,  has 
two  ends  :  if  your  existence  had  an  end  in  one  direction,  it  will  have  in 
the  other  :  if  you  have  not  been  Eternal,  you  will  not  be  Immortal  ! 

Though,  if  you  have  been  Eternal,  yet  you  do  not  know  it — you  were 
unconscious.  And  then,  if  you  will  be  Immortal,  you  Avill  not  know 
that ;  for  equally,  you  will  be  unconscious.  What  has  one  end  has  two 
ends:  if  your  consciousness  began,  it  will  cease;  if  it  has  not  been 
Eternal,  then  it  will  not  be  Immortal !  And  that  is  the  same  as  to  say 
that  you  will  not,  be  ;  for  it  is  your  consciousness  that  makes  you  Immor- 
tal !  Not  to  be  conscious,  is  not  to  exist  at  all  ! 

Elements  are  Eternal  ;  Forms  are  not.  Forms  come  and  go  ;  Elements 
remain  the  same.  It  is  what  makes  an  Element,  that  it  is  always  the 
same  ;  it  is  what  makes  a  form,  that  it  comes  and  goes.  And  then  Ele- 
ments are  Immortal,  and  Forms  are  not ;  and  then  a  man  is  not,  for  he  is 
only  a  Form ;  but  all  that  composes  his  Form  will  be  dissipated,  and 
then  all  that  is  his  Form  will  be — the  whole  of  him  will  be.  His  Ele- 
ments will  continue,  but  he  will  disappear — he  will  go,  as  ho  came  ! 

At  last,  Immortality  is  nothing  but  Natural  Philosophy — the  question 
of  Matter — the  question  of  the  Universe  !  It  is  not  Logic,  but  Mathe- 
matics ;  not  metaphysics,  but  solid,  absolute  Physics ;  not  what  men  say, 
but  what  the  Universe  says,  and  what  it  will  have  true,  in  order  to  be 
the  Universe  :  and  then,  unless  men  can  successfully  cope  with  the  Uni- 
verse, they  can  never  lay  claim  to  live  forever  !  It  is  the  Immortality  of 
the  Universe,  and  not  the  Immortality  of  men  ! 

But  now,  this  very  Immortality  of  the  Universe,  not  only  prevents  the 
Immortality  of  men,  but  it  is  precisely  what  gets  the  start  of  that,  to 
make  it  not  needed,  as  itself  creating  something  to  be  its  perfect  and 
eternal  equivalent !  Men  cannot  be  Immortal ;  but  yet.  Immortally  there 
are  men — both  Eternally  and  Immortally,  there  are  men  !  Remember, 
that  the  Universe  which  made  the  God  unnecessary,  was  a  Universe,  for- 
ever and  forever,  of  men;  and  now  the  Universe  which  makes  Immor- 
tality unnecessary,  is  forever  and  forever,  a  Universe  of  men  !  The  Uni- 
verse exists  for  men,  and  to  unfold  them  to  exist — that  is  Avhat  the  mighty 
Infinite  is  for  !  Men  make  Man,  and  Man  makes  the  Universe,  and  I:-, 
the  Universe.  The  Eternity  of  the  Universe  is  his  Eternity  ;  and  its  Im- 
mortality, his  Immortality.  So  that  if  men  are  not  Eternal,  yet  Man  is  ; 
if  they  are  not  Immortal,  yet  equally,  he  is — there  always  were  men,  and 
there  always  ivill  be  men  ! 

Men  have  to  go  back,  but  Man  has  not ;  for  Men  are  Earths,  and 
Earths  are  men  ;  and  then  men  have  to  go  back  with  the  Eatths.  an  1  to 
be  the  Earths,  for  the  Earths  have  to  go  back  to  be  the  Universe — the 
Earths  are  the  Universe  :  but  Man  is  the  Universe,  for  it  takes  the  Earths 
to  make  Man,  for  it  takes  men  to  make  Man.  The  Earth  and  men  are 
one,  and  the  Universe  and  Man  are  one,  which  the  Earths  and  men  make. 
And  then  the  Earths  and  men  are  not  Eternal,  nor  Immortal ;  but  the 
Universe  and  Man,  are  both  !  ^ 

So  that  Man  exists  everywhere  and  forever!  and  what  can  there  be 
more  ?  So  that  the  perfect  Universe  is  one  of  men,  the  highest  and 
noblest  thing  in  the  Universe,  and  all  the  thing  it  exists  for — as  well  as. 


36 

all  the  thing  erer  worth  its  existing  !  So  that  there  are  human  beings  on 
every  world,  to  grow  into  the  perfect  destiny  of  human  beings,  and  thus 
work  out  that  only  possible  sum  of  existence,  a  continual  good,  running 
both  ways  forever  !  I  tell  thee,  thou  brother  !  if  this  is  not  the  Immor- 
tality thou  hast  dreamed  of,  thou  shajt  yet  confess  it  is  an  Immortality, 
for  which  a  Universe  might  well  sighi 

And  it  is  more  than  thine  !  An  Immortality  of  men  coming  and  going, 
is  more  than  an  Immortality  of  men  always  remaining,  even  if  they  could 
remain  ;  changing  men  are  more  than  same  ones  ;  always  new  ones,  than 
forever  old  ones.  It  is  eternally,  a  new  Universe  to  enjoy,  and  then, 
beings  to  enjoy  it ;  instead  of  an  old  Universe,  and  beings  who  have  al- 
ready, always  enjoyed  it ! 

And  if  men  had  known  of  tkis  Immortality,  they  would  never  have 
dreamed  of  the  other  !  If  they  had  known  there  had  been  men  forever, 
they  would  never  have  dreamed  of  themselves  living  forever  !  For  they 
would  have  seen  that  those  men  forever,  needed  to  live  forever,  as 
much  as  themselves  ;  and  then  they  would  see  that  Living  Forever  was 
not  the  Economy  of  all  things — was  not  the  Universe  !  And  likewise, 
they  would  see  that  if  those  men  forever,  had  lived  forever,  they  them- 
selves could  not  have  lived — they  would  not  now  be  alive  !  For  those 
men  would  have  all  the  Matter  in  them  ;  and  then  there  would  be  none 
left  to  make  themselves  out  of  !  A  pretty  predicament  they  would  be 
in — with  no  Matter  to  make  them  !  As  also,  and  equally,  if  they  were 
to  live  forever,  the  folks  that  were  to  come  after,  would  have  no  Matter 
to  make  them!  But,  if  the  world  had  only  existed  a  few  thousand  years, 
as  everybody  used  to  think,  why,  then,  men  could  get  up  just  such  an 
Immortality  as  they  pleased;  for  here  was  all  the  Matter,  and  here  al- 
ready, they  were,  and  there  was  nothing  to  hinder  their  living  on  till  the 
day  of  doom  !  And  as  to  their  living-on,  making  it  impossible  for  every- 
body else  to  do  so,  or  even  to  live  at  all,  they  had  not  brains  enough  to 
think  of  that !  So  that  Immortality  goes  right  back  to  the  idea  of  a 
beginning  of  things ;  that  old  lie,  which  men  ought  now  to  be  willing  to 
put  under  their  feet,  and  explode  forever  ! 

There  is  no  Immortality  of  individual  men!  The  whole  Universe 
proves  it.  This  great  rationale,  of  Immortality  for  Man,  proves  it.  That 
is  the  true  and  only  Doctrine  of  Immortality — Humanity  forever  in  this 
Universe  1  That  is  the  true  and  only  Statement — Men  forever,  and  Men 
but  making  Man  !  Man  is  the  one  true  and  grand  Immortality  ;  for  He, 
only,  runs  parallel  with  the  Universe,  and  is  the.  Universe — and  then 
He,  only,  can  be  Immortal  as  the  Universe — He,  only,  can  have  as  his, 
that  very  Immortality  which  the  Universe  has  as  its  ! 

All  things  prove  this  Immortality  ;  nothing  proves  any  other.  What- 
ever seems  to  prove  any  other,  after  all,  proves  only  this.  All  evidence 
is  resolved  into  the  need  that  there  should  be  men — that  the  Universe 
should  exist  for  humanity.  All  your  statements  melt  down  into  the 
simple  proposition,  that  Man  is  more  than  everything  else,  and  therefore  he 
shof$d  be  Immortal.  But  for  individual  Immortality,  there  is  no  statement. 

All  men  have  not  believed  in  Immortality.  Nobody  knows  what  the 
first  men  believed,  nor  whether  they  believed  anything  !  But  afterward, 
they  believed  in  Transmigration  ;  but  that  was  not  Immortality,  but  its 


37 

perfect  annihilation  !  It  was  one  man  living  on  in  another  man  ;  and  then 
it  was  still  but  one  man — and  then  the  other  was  blotted  out !  And  even, 
when  they  came  to  believe  in  all  living  on,  still  they  didn't  believe  so. 
but  they  only  thought  they  did.  As  men  all  thought  they  believed  in  ;•, 
God,  when  they  did  not,  but  only,  each  man  believed  in  his  own  idol,  so 
each  man  believed  in  his  idea  of  living-on,  but  that  differed  from  every 
other  man's  idea — they  all  believed  against  each  other,  and  believed  ic 
nothing!  If  one  of  ^hem  believed  in  living-on,  all  the  rest  didn't ;  for 
they  didn't  believe  what  he  did  !  They  all  believed  in  their  own  ideas  ; 
and  then  there  were  as  many  ideas  as  folks  ;  and  then  there  was  nothing 
but  their  ideas  !  But  even,  if  they  all  had  believed  in  living  on,  it  would 
only  go  to  prove  it  a  lie  ;  for  almost  all,  men  have  ever  believed  yet,  has 
Iteen  a  lie  !  It  is  high  time  for  the  world  to  grow  out  of  all  these  old  lies. 

And  there  is  no  analogy  for  Immortality.  But  verily,  the  universal 
and  infinite  analogy  is  against  it.  Everything  else  goes  back.  Man  die? 
and  seems  to — does  he  1  Everything  looks  like  it,  just  as  much  as  in  the 
case  of  everything  else.  Everything  does  just  as  in  the  case  of  every- 
thing else — not  a  particle  of  difference — not  a  thing  lo  show  the  odds. 
There  lies  the  man,  dead  ;  he  cannot  stir  ;  for  all  the  world,  he  is  pre- 
cisely like  a  dead  ox — or  a  dead  stone,  if  you  say  that  the  ox,  too,  is  Im- 
mortal :  presently  the  body  rots  down,  and  becomes  manure,  and  nothing 
is  left  but  the  bones  ;  in  time  they,  too,  rot,  and  the  whole  body  disap- 
pears— there  is  not  one  particle  of  it  left and  now,  where* s  the  main  ? 

There  isn't  foundation  for  a  dream,  that  he  isn't  dead  and  used  up,  ju.-t 
as  he  looks  to  be  !  If  other  things  are  dead,  that  act  in  the  same  way,  //<• 
is.  But  other  things  all  do  go  back,  and  have  to,  to  carry  on  the  Urn- 
verse  ;  and  then  he  has  to — he  has — he  is  dead ! 

What  and  where  is  the  evidence  that  this  man  is  now  alive  ;  that  nnv 
part  of  him  is  alive  ?  What  and  where  is  this  spirit  which  you  say  has 
left  him  ?  Where  was  it  before  it  left  him,  while  it  was  yet  in  his  body — 
and  what  was  there  beside  his  body  ?  And  where  is  it  now,  after  it  h;i? 
left  ?  Point  out  this  spirit,  and  show  us  what  it  had  to  do  with  the  man'? 
living,  and  then  with  his  dying,  so  that  we  can  see  through  this  great 
mystery  of  a  man  dying  who  don't  die  !  But,  1  can  point  out  the 
spirit;  I  can  lay  my  finger  on  the  soul;  I  can  demonstrate  the  soul. 
though  it  be  Immortal,  and  if  it  be  Immortal  !  It  is  all  in  the  brain  • 
here  is  where  your  spirit  is.  It  is  this  organism,  which  you  call  man  ; 
it  is  greatly,  in  every  part  of  this  organism,  down  to  the  very  toes  ; 
but  it  is  specially  and  absolutely,  in  this  "capital  seat  of  government," 
the  brain:  not  after ^ you  have  killed  the  man,  for  then  the  organism 
is  dead,  and  the  brain  is  dead  ;  but  now,  while  the  man  is  alive.  Not 
all  of  the  brain  is  most  strictly  soul  ;  though  all  is  indivisibly  con- 
nected with  it,  and  the  absolute  condition  oJ  it.  Not  its  innumerable 
and  minute  blood-vessels,  with  the  blood  they  circulate  ;  though  the 
part  which  is  true  soul  is  directly  manufactured  from  that  blood,  and 
therefore  the  vessels  and  blood,  are -all  over  and  through,  the  brain, 
and  make  up  a  great  part  of  the  whole.  Not  the  countless  nerves, 
equally,  all  over  it ;  some  of  them  radiating  from  it,  to  all  parts  of 
the  body ;  and  some  of  them  through  it,  from  the  animal  brain,  back 
of  it  and  belo'w  it.  •  Not  the  fluids  in  these  nerves  ;  still  more  neavlv 


38 

one  with  the  true  matter  of  the  brain,  and  serving  to  transmit  its  mes- 
sages to  the  body,  or  those  of  the  other  brain  to  this.  Nor  yet,  the 
white  part,  or  medullary  substance,  of  the  brain ;  something  like  the 
spinal  cord  which  ends  there,  and  serving  as  a  center  and  kind  of  frame- 
work, around  and  on  -which,  to  build  up  the  brain.  But  the  gray,  cin- 
eriiious  matter — this  is  the  brain-of-all — this  is  the  final  soul  itself.  This 
is  it  that  thinks.  This  it  is  that  loves,  hopes,  joys,  fears,  plumes  itself 
on  being  Immortal !  And  this  is  the  very,  '•  precious  and  Immortal 
soul,"  all  men  have  always  been  talking  about ! 

But  so,  this  brain  is  all  one,  each  part  essential  to  every  other,  and  the 
whole  necessary  to  the  one  grand  result,  the  full  and  perfect  soul.  And 
this  brain  is  all  being  wasted  and  renewed,  every  day  of  our  lives.  It  is 
wasted  by  every  thought,  for  thought  is  still  brain.  Every  time  ATC 
think,  or  will,  or  feel,  or  do  whatever,  a  portion  of  the  brain  is  given  off, 
and  we  call  it  thought.  Our  thought  goes  forth  into  the  air,  and  then, 
so  much  of  our  brain  is  in  the  air  ;  and  other  men  taste  it,  and  know 
what  we  are  thinking  of.  They  know  the  brain  that  is  left,  by  that  in 
the  air.  And  the  brain  is  renewed,  by  everything  we  eat,  and  drink,  and 
inhale.  So  a  man's  soul  is  daily  manufactured  for  him,  out  of  food  he  can 
weigh  in  the  scales — bread,  pork,  potatoes,  or  whatever — liquid,  from 
tumbler,  cup,  or  jug — and  air,  gas1,  electricity,  and  all  elements.  All 
these  make  blood,  and  blood  makes  the  brain.  And  then  the  brain,  being 
made,  though  out  of  such  gross  substances,  is  yet  the  highest  and  finest 
organism  in  the  world  ;  and  therefore  it  is  and  does,  what  no  other  organ- 
ism can  be  nor  do,  and  all  itself  need  be  and  do,  to  make  it  all  the  soul  or 
spirit  is.  Be  it  or  not,  that  it  is  the  highest  and  finest  Matter,  it  yet,  is 
transceadently  superior  to  all  other  organizations  of  Matter.  Say  that 
electricity  is  finer,  but  it  is  not  organized,  and  it  cannot  be  ;  and  there- 
fore, the  brain  can  infinitely  outdo  it.  If  electricity  can  thunder  once, 
the  brain  can,  ten  thousand  times,  and  ten  thousand  more  on  the  end — 
it  is  a  perpetual  battery  of  electricity  !  Though,  since  the  brain  is  the 
highest  organism,  it  must  equally,  while  it  is  the  organism,  be  the  high- 
est Matter — highest,  but  not  finest.  It  is  higher  than  electricity,  in  that 
it  is  more  than  that.  It  is  higher  than  any  Matter,  because  it  is  more. 
It  is  now,  being  organized,  being  brain,  immeasurably  above  what  even 
itself  was,  before  it  was  brain.  Then  it  was  corn  ;  and  before  that,  earth  ; 
and  before  that,  stone  or  mineral ;  and  at  first,  it  was  the  universal  gran- 
ite of  the  Earth's  primeval  crust.  Now,  it  is  the  absolute  thing  men  call 
Mind.  For,  precisely  that  is  the  difference  between  brain  and  all  other 
Matter.  Other  Matter  is  anything  and  everything  :  this  Matter  is  Mind. 
If  you  want  to  touch  Soul,  you  can — this  Matter  is  Soul.  If  you 
want  to  see  Spirit,  you  can — this  Matter  is  Spirit.  Phrenology  has 
hit  it,  that  Brain  shows  Mind.  But,  just  as  much,  it  has  missed  if,  that 
Brain  is  organ  to  Mind.  Brain  shows  Mind  because  it  is  Mind  itself. 

So,  put  an  end  to  this  brain,  and  you  have  forever  told  the  story 
of  the  soul.  Because  brain  is  soul,  therefore,  when  Brain  dies.  Mind 
dies,  Soul  dies,  Spirit  dies.  Destroy  man's  organism,  and  you  destroy 
its  properties  ;  kill  him,  and  you  kill  his  thought ;  as,  when  you  kill 
a  tree,  you  kill  its  leaves  ;  or  a  rose-bush,  its  roses.  Preserve  the 
brain,  after  you  have  killed  a  man,  but  still  it  is  dead,  it  is  a  dead  soul ; 


39 

it  can  no  more  do  the  work  of  a  soul,  than  that  rose-bush  cut  down, 
can  bear  roses.  And  let  it  alone,  and  it  will  speedily  moulder,  and  be- 
come no  soul  at  all. 

Absolutely,  the  soul  is  annihilated  every  night,  for  it  goes  to  sleep 
every  night — because  the  brain  does  ;  and  then  it  is,  for  the  time  being, 
dead  :  and  it  would  be  dead,  if  the  animal  brain,  which  never  sleeps,  did 
not  carry  on  the  organism,  and  rest  it,  and  thus  wake  this  brain  up  again. 
People  say  their  souls  don't  sleep,  but  they  do ;  their  very  spirit  does  ;  it 
has  to  :  for  that  is  the  whole  philosophy  of  resting  and  restoring  the 
body,  that  the  spirit  must  sleep,  to  let  the  body  rest.  If  the  spirit  worked 
on  incessantly,  it  would  wear  the  body  out.  Call  the  spirit  what  you 
will,  and  the  body  what  you  will,  yet,  till  one  sleeps,  the  other  can't. 
People  say  they  dream  when  they  sleep,  and  so  they  are  not  asleep  ;  but 
they  never  dream  except  when  they  are  waking,  or  at  least,  when  a  part 
of  them  is  awake — they  never  dream  and  sleep  together.  They  say  they 
dream  all  night ;  then  they  don't  sleep  any  all  night — they  are  only  half 
asleep.  They  don't  dream  all  night ;  dreams  seem  very  long,  and  all  the 
dreams  they  have,  don't  take  up  five  minutes.  So  it  is  the  spirit  that 
sleeps,  after  all ;  and  the  whole  man  sleeps,  except  this  animal  brain, 
which  works  the  heart,  and  lungs,  and  a-11  the  involuntary  organs.  And 
no  man  has  ever  yet,  been  able  to  answer  this  argument  from  Sleep.  No 
man  can  possibly  explain  Sleep,  on  the  hypothesis  of  Immortality.  It  is 
an  everlasting  and  infinite  obstacle.  If  the  soul  goes  out  into  utter  noth- 
ingness, every  night — even  so  that,  if  the  man  could  be  killed  without 
waking  him,  it  would  never  know  what  hurt  it,  nor  so  much  as,  that  it 
was  hurt — then,  infallibly,  it  will  go  out  into  the  same  nothingness  at 
death  !  If  the  sleep  of  a  few  hours  is  the  spirit's  oblivion,  depend  upon 
it,  that  will  be  perpetual  Oblivion  when  it  lays  itself  down  to  the  sleep 
of  the  grave  !  Tremble  when  you  give  yourself  up  to  rest,  at  the  thought 
that  you  are  about  to  sink  into  the  arms  of  annihilation  !  /  lie  down 
every  night,  with  the  consciousness  that  I  am  going  to  be  annihilated  ! 
[But  going  to  sleep  is  perfect  bliss,  and  so  will  be  that  last  annihilation, 
when  it  comes  !] 

So  that  this  is  the  whole  philosophy  of  the  soul  ;  this  is  all  there  is  ef 
the  spirit  they  tell  so  much  about.  There  is  no  spirit-organism  in  the 
other  organism,  one  man  inside  of  another  ;  for  that  can't  be — the  thing 
is  impossible.  What  is  in  that  man,  is  that  man,  and  there  is  no  place 
for  anything  else.  A  spirit  inside  of  a  man,  is  all  one  with  a  devil  inside 
of  him  ;  he  can  no  more  be  possessed  with  a  spirit,  than  he  can  be  pos- 
sessed with  a  devil !  There  is  nothing  in  a  tree  that  is  not  the  tree  ;  and 
so  there  is  nothing  in  a  man  that  is  not  the  man.  There  is  nothing  in 
anything,  that  is  not  that  thing — no  invisible,  intangible  something,  in 
things,  and  common  to  things,  and  yet  not  things.  If  there  is  electricity 
in  all  things,  yet  in  them,  it  is  a  part  of  them  ;  or,  if  you  will  not  have  it 
part  of  them,  then,  instead  of  all  things,  it  is  all  things  and  electricity 
beside  ;  and  then  there  is  nothing  but  all  things  and  electricity  !  There 
is  not,  yet,  something  else,  still  that  same  invisible,  intangible  something  ; 
but  infallibly,  there  are  only,  precisely  those  things.  There  is  no  such 
thing  as  something  pervading  things  ;  but  either,  in  those  things,  it  is 
those  things  ;  or,  there  are  both  the  things,  and  it :  and  it  in  one  of  the 


40 

things,  is  not  the  same  with  it  in  another,  but  there  are  as  many  it's  as 
thera  are  things  with  it  in  them  ;  and  by  this  time,  there  are  all  the  Jirst 
things,  and  all  these  other  things  to  be  added  to  them — there  are  so  many 
things, -and  then  there  is  nothing  but  the  things  at  last !  And  then  there 
is  still,  nothing  in  a  man;  neither  this  invisible,  intangible  something, 
nor  yet  any  other  something  ;  but  there  is,  after  all,  only  the  man.  And 
there  is  not  something  that  leaves  him  at  death  ;  but  the  whole  man  is 
right  there,  dying.  There  is  nothing  that  leaves  a  tree  when  it  dies  ;  or 
if  there  is,  what  goes,  absolutely  was  the  tree,  and  now  it  will  equally, 
become  something  else — it  will  not  be  tree  any  more.  So  there  is  noth- 
ing that  leaves  a  man ;  or  if  there  is,  yet,  both  it  was  the  man,  and  also, 
hereafter  it  will  not  be — either  way,  there  is  still  nothing  but  the  man. 
But  nobody  can  show  that  one  particle  does  leave  him.  Weigh  him,  dy- 
ing, in  the  most  delicate  balance,  and  it  will  not  tremble  a  hair  when  his 
life  goes  out ;  and  then  it  does  not  go  out,  but  only,  we  say  it  does.  In- 
stead of  his  life  going  out,  or  anything  going  out,  it  is  simply,  that  he 
dies.  His  life  as  much  stays  in,  because  it  can't  get  out,  as  it  does  the 
other  thing.  It  does  neither,  it  does  nothing — there  is  no  life.  The 
very  phrase  still  deceives  us,  so  that,  when  we  speak  of  his  life  going 
out,  or  even  his  life,  we  repeat  to  ourselves  that  old  lie,  of  something 
beside  himself — something  that  is  not  he.  But,  if  we  will  say,  his  life,  it 
is  simply  that  his  life  ceases — he  ceases — the  organism  ceases.  If  the 
man  was  killed,  the  organism  was  at  once  destroyed  :  the  bullet,  the  axe, 
the  tree,  or  whatever,  violently  violated  the  organism,  that  it  could  no 
longer  preserve  its  integrity — remain  what  it  was.  If  the  man  died, 
whether  from  age,  sickness,  or  any  or  all  reasons,  then  the  organism  was 
worn  out,  and  it  stopped — like  a  clock  run  down,  it  had  no  more  power 
to  go  But  in  either  case,  the  very  instant  the  organism  stopped,  strictly 
it  ceased  to  exist ;  for  that  is  what  makes  an  organism — its  being  a  thing 
that  will  go.  An  organism  is  that  which,  out  of  materials,  builds  itself 
up  something  else,  and  preserves  itself  that  something  else ;  and  then  it 
must  continue  to  build  itself  up  ;  and  the  moment  it  does  not,  it  ceases 
to  be  an  organism — not  only,  the  one  it  was,  but  any  organism.  A  dead 
organism  is  not  an  organism  ;  but  only,  it  was  one,  and  it  has  not  yet  had 
time  to  be  dissipated — the  Matter  is  still  there,  but  is  on\y\organic  ;  in- 
stead of  an  organism,  organic  remains.  And  then  what  the  man's  organ- 
ism was,  afier  it  stopped,  was  verily,  not  an  organism,  but  only  what  had 
been  one,  now  going  to  decay — for  it  commenced  going,  the  instant  it 
stopped.  A  tree  begins  to  go  to  pieces  the  very  year  it  dies,  though  it 
may  still  stand,  for  a  hundred  ;  so  a  man's  organism  starts  for  the  ground 
the  minute  it  dies,  even  if  it  don't  get  there  for  as  long  a  time  as  the  tree. 
A  man's  organism,  and  a  man,  are  the  same  ;  and  dying  and  ceasing  are 
the  same  ;  and  then  a  man's  dying,  is  simply  his  organism  ceasing.  And 
living,  and  being  an  organism  or  a  man,  are  the  same  ;  and  then  the 
whole  thing  about  any  li/e  of  the  man,  is  simply  that  same  we  had  be- 
fore— there  was  an  organism,  but  it  has  ceased — once  there  was  a  man, 
*but  now  there  is  none.  And  then,  forever,  there  is  still  nothing  but  the 
man — JSTnot  even  any  life  to  go  out  of  him  ! 

And,  if  there  is  no  spirit  in  man  before  his  death,  then  there  is  no 
spirit  of  him,   after  his  death.      As  nothing  went  out  of  him,  there 


was  nothing  of  him  after  it  went  out !  Though,  if  something  did  go 
out  of  him,  yet  it  will  not  make  a  spirit,  for  it  weighed  nothing — 
there  is  not  enough  of  it !  A  spirit  must  be  an  organism  ;  but 
there  is  not  Matter  enough  to  make  an  organism  out  of !  The  particles 
are  not  thick  enough  together,  that  they  can  reach  across  from  one  to  his 
neighbor,  to  organize  !  There  is  no  such  thing  as  these  fine,  impalpable, 
airy  nothings  floating  about,  everywhere  and  nowhere  all  the  same,  which 
a  Fly  might  fly  right  through,  or  the  least  breath  dissipate  ;  but,  to  be 
anj- thing  that  shall  not  instantly  be  wasted,  there  must  be  solid,  actual, 
absolute  Matter.  If  a  thundeibolt  wields  a  terrible  and  resistless  power, 
yet  it  is  but  one  flash,  and  then  all  is  over;  and  the  very  flash  could 
never  come,  till  the  electricity  had  been  condensed  from  far  and  near  in 
the  clouds.  Even  if  there  is  sufficient  electricity  in  a  single  drop  of  water, 
to  kill  a  man,  yet  while  it  is  water  there  is  not — you  have  to  retort  the 
Avater,  and  develop  the  electricity.  You  but  resolve  solid  into  something 
else  ;  and  then  that  is  your  confession  that  you  had  to  have  solid  ! 
Though,  once  again,  if  there  could  be  spirit-organisms,  yet  they  could 
not  be  Immortal ;  but,  infallibly,  they  must  all  go  out  like  every  other 
organism  :  for  that  is  the  very  nature  of  an  organism,  to  come  and  yo — 
that  is  precisely  what  makes  it  an  organism  ;  and  then,  if  there  couL.l  be 
a  Spiritual  one,  it  would  make  no  difference  !  Those  who  are  making 
all  this  perpetual  noise  about  an  organism  existing  forever — yes,  a  Spir- 
itual organism,  for  that  is  the  very  organism  I  am  speaking  of — don't 
know  what  they  are  talking  about !  The  thing  is  a  contradiction  ! 

Point  out  these  spirits  in  which  you  believe  !  Tell  us  whereabouts  in 
the  Universe  they  dwell,  and  what  at  last  they  are  !  But  I  can  tell  you 
where  they  came  from — that  God  !  He  was  a  spirit ;  and  human  beings 
were  going  to  live  on  with  him,  and  so  they  had  to  be  spirits  !  With  one 
such  great  spirit,  it  was  a  thing  of  course  to  have  ever  so  many  little  ones  ! 
And  then  there  is  no  more  proof  of  the  little  ones,  than  of  the  graat  one  ; 
but  the  great  one  has  gone,  and  the  little  ones  go,  too.  There  is  no  more, 
one  of  these  spirits  you  talk  about,  than  there  is  that  God.  And  there  is 
no  more,  a  heaven,  a  happy  Immortality,  than  there  is  a  hell,  a  miserable 
Immortality — each  is  the  same  superstition  ;  there  is  the  same  founda- 
tion for  one  there  is  for  the  other.  And  there  are  no  more,  any  angels,  than 
devils  ;  and  no  more,  any  human  spirits,  than  either.  There  are  no  more, 
any  invisible  spirits,  than  there  are  witches,  fairies,  ghosts,  spooks,  or 
good  and  evil  genii.  People  can't  point  out  these  things  :  you  can't 
point  out  your  nothings.  And  then  they  are  nothings,  and  there  are  no 
spirits.  But  it  is  my  conviction  that  when  men  die,  they  don't  live,  and 
when  they  are  dead,  they're  dead — and  not  that  we  have  only  been  talking! 

But  you  appeal  to  facts  ;  and  J  appeal  to  facts — most  of  all  I  appeal  to 
them!  That  is  the  only  thing  I  have  been  doing!  That  is  exactly 
it,  that  it  is  the  facts  of  this  Universe  which  prove  no  Immortality, 
which  make  Immortality  impossible  !  You  appeal  to  facts,  but  I  ap- 
peal to  the  facts,  the  facts  of  all  ages.  1  appeal  to  the  fact  that  all 
your  facts  (pretended,  then,)  are  only  exceptional  ones,  here  and  there 
something  picked  out  from  the  history  of  the  race  during  all  these 
centuries,  and  most  of  all,  just  now,  after  so  long  a  time,  which  you 
think  you  can  construe  into  proof  of  the  existence  of  spirits — two  or 


42 

three  pretended  facts  in  the  midst  of  this  continuous  experience  of  a  mil- 
lion of  years  !  Who  are  you  to  talk  about  facts,  when  all  the  facts  of  the 
perfect  world  are  against  you  ?  Where  are  all  these  spirits  of  such  thou- 
sands of  generations  ?  Where  have  they  been  ?  WThat  are  they  doing, 
and  where  do  they  keep  themselves,  that  we  have  never  known  anything 
about  them  ?  The  bnre  fact  of  such  a  question,  is  its  own  overwhelming 
answer  !  The  bare  fact  that  there  is  a  doubt,  that  there  has  ever  been  a 
doubt,  is  the  certainty  of  demonstration  !  If  there  were  any  spirits,  the 
whole  world,  as  one  man,  would  know  it !  If  all  these  men  who  have  ever 
existed  on  the  Earth,  in  all  times  and  all  lands,  had  lived  on  till  now,  such 
an  innumerable  company  of  mighty,  moving  beings  somewhere,  and  their 
natures  still  joined  to  ours,  and  ours  to  theirs,  and  with  all  their  power  to 
traverse  Space,  and  revisit  this  world,  and  here  to  reveal  themselves  to  mor- 
tals— the  very  power  of  spirits  of  the  air — if  all  this  were  so,  every  man 
and  woman  and  child  on  the  globe,  would  know  it !  And  every  man 
and  woman  and  child  on  the  globe,  always  would  have  known  it !  Think 
of  a  soul,  what  it  is — that  it  is  thunder,  it  is  lightning,  it  is  omnipotence  : 
think  what  innumerable  multitudes  of  such  souls  there  are  that  are  dead, 
even  all  these  same  ones  that  have  gone  before  :  think  of  these  dead  souls 
as  after  all,  not  dead,  but,  yet  alive,  their  true  and  natural  selves,  stronger 
than  before,  even  every  one  of  them  able  to  be  and  do — and  then  think  of 
a  whole  world  of  mortals  asking  the  question  together,  Where  all  those 
innumerable  dead  souls  are !  The  very  question  overturns  the  whole 
supposition,  and  thunders  back  the  answer  to  every  one  of  the  universal 
millions  asking  it,  Nowhere  !  the  dead  souls  are  nowhere  !  If  there  had 
ever  been  any  such  beings  real,  the  world  could  never  have  called  them 
spirits — the  very  name  is  the  most  perfect  reductio  ad  absurdum  !  In- 
visible, impalpable,  impossible  beings NOTHINGS  !  And,  if  there  had 

ever  been  any  such  existences  real,  the  world  could  never  have  called 
their  home,  The  Great  Unknown,  The  Undiscovered  Country,  The  Silent 
Laud,  The  Bourn  whence  no  traveler  returns  !  The  very  names  prove 
no  such  Place,  and  then,  no  such  beings  in  it !  The  whole  thing  is 
an  infinite  impossibility  ! 

jJST'And  all  that  you  say  about  "certain  conditions  being  requisite  to 
the  manifestation  of  spirits,"  only  makes  the  matter  so  much  the  worse  ! 
For  it  is  a  palpable,  and  at  last  a  transparent,  confession  that  after  all, 
there  are  no  spirits,  or  they  would  not  need  "  conditions  !  "  Why  don't 
spirits  create  "  conditions  ?  "  That  is  precisely  it,  that  there  is  not 
enough  of  them  to  do  it — there  is  nothing  of  them,  and  so  they  can't 
do  anything — there  is  nothing  of  them,  and  so  they  don't  exist  !  Why 
don't  you  talk  about  "  conditions"  to  a  real,  live  man  ?  And  then,  why 
do  you  talk  about  them  to  a  man's  spirit,  which  is  so  much  more  real  and 
live  than  the  man  possibly  can  be  ?  j£5T'The  real  fact  of  a  true  human 
spirit  makes  all  such  "  conditions"  as  you  talk  about  impossible  ! 

For  myself,  I  know  there  are  no  spirits.  Not  for  you,  nor  for  any  others, 
but  for  myself,  I  know  that  the  dead  have  no  existence.  There  are  no  such 
beings  to-day,  as  Plato,  and  Jesus,  and  Bacon,  even  if  there  ever  was  any 
Jesus  !  There  is  no  Humboldt  now,  nor  Owen,  nor  Paine,  nor  Shakspeare. 
John  Brown  has  gone  out,  and  Washington  Irving,  and  Washington  him- 
self, and  Cromwell,  and  Napoleon.  [And  now,  Theodore  Parker.]  The 


43 

dead  are  not  alive  to  me,  and  I  know  they  could  not  be  alive  and  I  not 
know  it  !  The  great  masters  of  the  world's  thought,  the  intellects  th;it 
have  ruled  the  ages,  would  flow  into  their  own,  and  have  fellowship  with 
their  brother  !  But  they  all  sleep,  and  I  know  it  as  I  know  Existence  ! 

But  you  appeal  to  Spiritualism  ;  and  I  appeal  to  Spiritualism.  .1  appeal 
to  it,  as  perfectly  impossible  to  prove  anything  opposed  to  all  this  proof 
the  other  ivay  so  many  thousands  of  years,  and  as,  on  the  very  face  rof 
things,  only  able  to  furnish  proof  confirmatory  of  all  this  that  has  been  be- 
fore !  Spiritualism  all  finds  its  easy  solution  in  living  men  ;  and  if  you  did 
not  first  ignore  living  men,  and  assume  this  long  and  superstitious  faith,  of 
the  existence  of  dead  ones,  you  would  never  think  of  making  Spiritualism 
Spiritual  !  Men's  brains  are  the  only  spirits  ;  and  live  brains,  and  not  dead 
ones,  are  the  only  authors  of  Spiritualism  !  As  the  bruin  is  equal  to,  and 
is,  all  this  on  earth,  which  you  call  a  human  soul,  even  so  it  is  equal  to,  and 
is,  all  this,  somewhere,  which  you  call  a  departed  spirit.  Men's  brains  are 
not  now,  all  they  will  be  ;  and  some  men's  brains  are  not  now,  what  other 
men's  brains  are  ;  and  the  same  men's  biains  are  not  at  one  time,  all  they 
are  at  another — and  then  Spiritualism  resolves  directly  into  what  some  of 
these  brains  now  are  and  do.  Clairvoyance  is  nothing  but  some  of  these 
brains,  either  in  their  natural  or  abnormal  state;  it  is  no  more,  anything 
above  these  brains,  than  Somnambulism  is,  for  it  is  precisely  the  same  thing 
with  Somnambulism.  And  all  men  will  yet  be  Clairvoyant,  even  in  their 
natural  state  ;  and  then  there  will  be  a  transparent,  road  for  all  that  is  real  in 
Spiritualism,  and  infinitely  more  !  Spiritualism  that  is  real,  is  all  reducible 
to  Sympathy,  somehow,  somewhere,  Bomewhen — whether  we  can  tell  tiie 
precise,  facts,  no  matter :  rapport  with  Nature,  sympathy  with  Existence  ! 
A  Clairvoyant  is  only  in  sympathy  ;  he  does  not  if<?,because  his  spirit  leaves 
his  body,  and  goes  to  see — for  his  spirit  is  his  body;  and  one  part  of  his 
body  never  goes  without  the  other  parts — his  spirit  never  goes  without  his 
legs  !  And  neither  does  he  see  because  some  other  spiiit,  that  dun';,  rxini 
if  it  is  out  of  the  body,  and  that,  if  it  is  in  some  body  is  that  body — he  does 
not  see  because  such  a  spirit  comes  and  tells  him  ;  but  on  the  contrary,  lie 
is  at  home,  and  everybody  else  is  at  home  !  But,  he  is  in  such  sympathy 
with  something,  even  though  a  thousand  miles  off :  ho  is  in  such  direct 
and  intimate  rapport  with  it,  that  he  becomes  sensitive  to  it,  and  that  is  to 
be  sensible  o/it,  to  feel  it,  to  know  it  as  existing,  and  the  kind  of  thing  it  is 
that  exists  :  and  by  this  time,  he  sees  it,  and  you  have  reached  the  end  of 
all — a  man  at  home,  and  yet  seeing !  And  all  men  will  yet  grow  into  this 
great  and  perfect  Sympathy,  with  each  other,  and  with  all  things.  And 
then  there  Avill  be  no  Spiritualism  ;  but  it  will  be  Menism — the  simple,  and 
easy,  but  wonderful,  being  and  doing  of  Men  !  JSTSo  that  Spiritualism 
builds  itself  outright,  on  this  ignoring  the  nobility  and  progression  of  the 
human  Soul  ! 

"  But  we  see  spirits."  So  you  do,  and  everybody  sees  everything. 
But  now,  nobody  sees  anything — but  only,  all  men  see  pictures  of 
things  !  And  you  only  see  pictures  of  what  are  not  things — pictures 
of  nothing  !  Your  own  minds  make  the  pictures  you  see  !  Clairvoy- 
ants make  a  great  many  of  the  things  they  see  ;  they  don't  see  them, 
but  only,  they  think  they  do :  and  so  you  make  all  the  pictures  yuv. 
see ;  you  don't  see  them,  but  only,  you  think  you  do.  All  spirit- 


44 

seeing  is  Clairvoyance  ;  and  as  all  Clairvoyants  see  other  things  when 
they  don't,  so  they  all  see  spirits  when  they  don't.  And  so  there  was 
never  a  spirit  seen,  only  when  there  was  nothing  there  to  see  !  No  man 
ever  saw  a  spirit.  But  you  have  been  psychologized  by  your  own  ideas, 
and  then  you  have  seen  your  own  thoughts — nothing  more  !  Spirits  there 
are  not  to  see  ! 

"  But  we  cannot  account  for  a  great  many  things  that  are  done,  if  there 
are  not  spirits."  And  can  you  account  for  them  any  better,  if  there  are  ? 
Can't  live  brains  do  things  better  than  dead  ones — or  than  no  brains  at 
all  ?  Is  it  half  so  hard  to  account  for  the  things,  as  to  admit  the  very 
spirits  who  are  to  account  for  them  ?  Beings  made  out  of  nothing,  and 
that  are  nothing  !  Beings  in  existence  all  these  thousands  of  years,  and 
yet  nobody  ever  knowing  anything  about  it !  Beings  that  have  done 
nothing  for  half  an  eternity — not  so  much  as  to  peep — and  now.  all  at 
once,  starting  up  and  doing  all  these  great  wonders  !  I  declare  that  the 
things  done,  and  for  which  you  wish  to  account,  are  a  perfect  blaze  of 
suns/tine,  by  the  side  of  such  spirits !  Nothing  is  so  impossible  to  be 
accounted  for,  as  they  are  ;  and  anything  so  impossible  to  be  accounted 
for,  don't  exist — and  they  don't  exist !  There  are  no  Spirits  !  - 

And,  once  for  all,  you  will  never  be  such  a  spirit,  and  you  may  as  Avell 
give  it  up  first  as  last.  For  that  is  what  you  have  got  to  make  up  your 
mind  to,  that  absolutely,  and  beyond  any  peradventure,  there  is  no  Im- 
mortality, and  that,  that  is  the  "end  of  it !  1  may  as  well  tell  you,  as  I  did 
with  respect  to  the  God — that  Immortality  is  simply  impossible,  and 
there's  no  use  talking  !  It  is  peifectly  physically  impossible,  and  there 
is  no  getting  away  from  thai.  Between  you  and  the  possibility  of  Im- 
mortality, stands  this  whole  infinite  physical  Universe,  with  every  atom 
of  its  Matter.  Every  atom  of  it  is  here  now  :  not  one  atom  of  it  would 
be,  could  be,  if  you  were  Immortal !  If  all  men  away  back  forever,  had 
lived  on,  they  would  have  taken  all  the  Matter  of  the  Universe  with  them  ; 
for  they  would  have  taken  all  the  Matter  of  the  Universe  to  make  them  : 
if  not  all  those  existing  at  any  one  time  would  have  taken  it  all,  yet  those 
existing  after  them  would  have  taken  more,  and  those  after  them,  more, 
and  so  on,  till  infallibly,  all  of  them  would  have  taken  it  all — all  of  them 
would  have  taken  all  the  Matter  of  the  Universe  to  make  them,  and  then 
would  have  brought  all  the  Matter  of  the  Universe  along  with  them,  -as 
they  came  down  the  Immortal  road  !  If  they  had  lived  on  as  spirits — as 
you  say  you  will  live  on  a  spirit,  and  as  we  know  they  could  not  have  lived 
on  in  any  other  manner  [though,  just  as  if  that  manner  was  not  the  most 
ridiculous  and  impossible  of  all  !\ — then,  when  they  had  converted  all 
the  Matter  of  the  Universe  into  themselves,  they  would  equally,  have 
converted  it  all  into  spirits,  and  then  there  would  have  been  nothing  but 
spirits  :  there  would  not  have  been  one  thing  physical :  not  a  stone,  nor 
a  tree,  nor  a  man,  nor  a  Planet,  nor  a  Sun — no,  nor  any  physical  Uni- 
verse at  all :  the  perfect  Universe  would  have  been  blotted  out,  and  noth- 
ing left,  save  only  these  spirits,  traveling  clown  the  Immortal  road,  and 
bringing  what  was  the  Universe  along  with  them  !  For  if  there  ever 
could  be  any  spirits,  [just  as  if  there  could  be  such  an  absurdity!] 
infallibly  they  must  be  made  out  of  just  such  Matter  as  this  which  makes 
all  other  things — refined,  by  organization,  to  a  truly  spiritual  form  ;  for 


45 

there  is  no  other  Matter — no  fine  Matter  to  make  them  out  of:  so  that, 
if  all  men  had  thus  lived  on  as  spirits,  inevitably  they  must  have  changed 
all  this  very  Matter  we  see  to-day,  and  thus,  left  that  only  and  insured 
result — no  Universe!  But,  if  they  had  lived  on  as  men,  and  not  as  spir- 
its, equally,  but  all  the  sooner,  they  would  have  converted  all  the  Matter 
of  the  Universe  into  themselves,  and  started  it  on  that  Immortal  journey  ; 
leaving  nothing  but  themselves — so  many  men,  but  not  a  Universe — or  if 
a  Universe,  yet  certainly,  not  this  Universe — not  these  Suns,  and  Planets, 
and  all  things  physical,  no,  nor  these  men,  if  even,  there  were  men  !  So 
that  \h.z  perfect  Universe  stands  between  you  and  your  living-  on — in  one 
case,  the  perfect  physical  Universe  ;  in  the  other,  this  whole  Universe  you 
see  to-day  !  Aye,  and  both  these  Universes  stand  between  you  and 
existence  ! 

Though,  if  there  had  been  this  fine  Matter  in  the  Universe,  to  make  ih«: 
spirits  out  of,  yet  all  that  would  equally,  have  been  converted  into  Im- 
mortals ;  the  one  would  have  been  exhausted  as  surely  as  the  other  :  and 
not  one  nor  both,  could  have  saved  you  from  that  alternative  at  last  not 
an  alternative — no  Universe,  or  not  this  Universe  ;  and  in  either  case,  an 
Infinity  of  Existence  between  you  and  the  object  of  your  desire  ! 

And  if  you  say  that  all  this  could  not  be,  because  the  Matter  of  the 
Universe  is  infinite,  so  it  is  ;  but,  so  is  the  Space  of  the  Universe  infinite  ' 
And  then  if  you  would  have  said,  that  therefore  the  Matter  of  the  Uni- 
verse cannot  be  exhausted,  yet  now,  you  are  check-mated,  and  prevented 
saying  it ;  for  it  is  almost  saying  the  sam°,  thing,  to  s<iy  that  even  infinite 
Matter  can  be  exhausted,  in  infinite  places  :  for  if  it  can  be  exhausted  i:i 
one  place,  so  it  can  be,  in  another  ;  and  when  it  is  exhausted  in  each 
place,  it  will  be,  in  all  places — and  then  it  will  be  all  exhausted  !  The 
Matter  of  the  Universe  is  distributed  in  an  infinite  number  of  Solar  Sys- 
tems ;  and  then,  if  one  Solar  System  could  be  exhausted,  by  all  its  human 
beings  living  on,  another  could  be,  just  as  easily  ;  and  if  the  process  of 
exhaustion  was  going  on  in  all  the  Systems,  at  the  same  time,  then,  when 
one  was  exhausted,  another  would  be,  and  they  all  would  be  !  True,  we 
could  never  get  to  the  end  of  them,  to  say,  all  ;  but  yet,  there  would  le 
all,  and  all  would  be  exhausted,  one  as  much  as  another — those  we  could 
never  get  to,  as  well  as  those  we  could  ;  for  the  same  reason  must  work 
the  same  result.  Because  there  is  no  end  of  the  Planets,  it  no  more 
follows  that  they  could  not  all  be  converted  into  spirits,  or  into  live  men, 
than,  because  the  atoms  of  Matter  are  infinite,  it  follows  that  they  cannot 
all  change :  they  do  all  change,  even  every  single  instant ;  for  every  atom 
is  perpetual  motion — it  is  the  very  Self-Existence  of  the  Matter  !  Since 
I  have  been  saying  this,  every  atom  of  Matter  in  the  Universe  has 
changed — absolutely -infinite  atoms  have  changed  ;  and  then,  absolutely- 
infinite  Matter  has  become  what  it  was  not  before — it  has  ceased  to  be  in 
one  relation,  and  come  to  be  in  another  relation  :  and  then,  absolutely - 
infinite  Solar  Systems  can  change,  and  become  what  they  were  not  be- 
fore;  and  the  absolutely-infinite  Matter  in  them,  can  cease  to  be  Matter, 
and  come  to  be  spirits,  or  men.  So  that  it  still  remains,  that  if  all  men 
had  lived  on,  away  back  always,  all  those  Solar  Systems,  with  the  Matter 
they  contained — the  perfect  Matter  of  the  Universe — easily  could,  and 
infallibly  would,  have  been  used  up,  and  run  out — and  there  is  no  help 


46 

for  it !  No  matter  how  long  the  process  might  have  been  ;  for  there  was 
a  perfect  Eternity  back  there  !  Instead  of  the  result  not  being  reached 
in  an  Eternity,  it  would  have  been,  from  Eternity,  and  might  have  been 
repeated  an  infinity  of  times  between  !  Even  for  a  whole  Eternity  past, 
that  would  have  been  the  record — no  Universe,  or  not  this  Universe,  and 
an  infinity  of  being  cutting  you  off  from  your  Goal  ! 

Then  you  cannot  be  Immortal  ;  but  it  remains  this  perfect  physical 
impossibility.  It  is  not  a  question;  everything  has  already  answered  it: 
the  Universe  has  answered  it,  for  then,  there  would  not  be  the  Universe  ; 
Eternity  has  answered  it,  for  then,  the  Universe  would  not  have  made 
Eternity — and  at  last,  you  have  answered  it !  You  will  not  live  forever, 
and  you  may  know  it  as  you  know  your  own  existence,  for  if  Immortality 
were  true,  you  would  not  be  in  existence  !  If  you  are  Immortal,  all  men 
are  ;  and  if  all  men  are,  all  men  have  been ;  and  if  all  men  have  been, 
all  Matter  was  long  ago  used  up :  and  then  there  was  no  Matter  left  to 
make  you  out  of;  and  then  you  were  not  made  out  of  anything ;  and 
then  you  don't  exist ;  and  1  don't  exist,  and  nobody  exists,  and  the  Uni- 
verse don't  exist — and  nothing  exists  !  0  !  there  is  nothing  so  infinitely 
impossible,  and  then  so  infinitely  unreal,  as  Immortality  !  There  is  no 
Immortality  ! 

A  whole  Universe,  with  (then)  Eternity  and  Infinity,  stood  between 
God  and  the  possibility  of  his  existing ;  and  a  perfect  Universe,  with 
(then)  the  same  Eternity  and  infinity,  stands  between  you  and  the  pos- 
sibility of  existing  always.  God  had  to  succumb,  and  not  exist  at  all ;  and 
you  will  have  to  succumb,  and  not  exist  always  !  God  and  you  must  go 
together,  here  ;  and  even  if  you  have  the  start  of  existing  now,  yet  infal- 
libly, you  would  not  have  even  thai  gain,  if  there  were  Immortality  ! 

"  But  we  can't  bear  not  to  be  Immortal ;  we  shrink  back  from  the 
thought  of  going  ouf  so  !  "  But  jSST'you  can't  bear  to  be  afraid  of  not 
being  Immortal ;  you  can't  bear  to  shrink  from  going  out  so  !  You  can't 
bear  to  £&~dvffM — that  is  not  what  you  exist  lor  !  But  you  exist  to  be 
great,  and  brave,  and  strong,  and  equal  ! — to  be  yourself  against  any- 
thing and  everything  !  You  exist  to  be  above  being  enslaved  to  fear,  or 
unhappiness,  even  by  the  infinite  Universe! 

"  But  certainly,  we  don't  want  to  live  if  we  are  not  to  live  forever  ; 
and  we  wish  we  never  had  lived  !"  But  that  is  an  infinite  weakness. 
What  will  Forever  be,  as  long  as  it  lasts,  only  now,  now,  now?  And 
then  this  now,  is  as  great,  and  as  much,  as  any  now  in  Forever  !  You 
might  as  well,  if  you  could  live  on,  not  call  half  your  Eternity  anything, 
only  because  you  were  sure  you  were  going  to  have  the  other  half !  All 
the  enjoyment  you  could  take  in  that  half  Eternity,  would  not  be  enjoy- 
ment, if  you  could  only  suppose  it  possible  that,  a  great  way  ahead,  you 
couldn  t  take  any  more !  If  Now  is  worth  nothing,  for  all  its  uses — 
nothing,  to  be  glorious  and  perfect  and  Happy  in — then  a  whole  Forever 
is  worth  nothing  ;  for  nothing,  multiplied  by  Forever,  is  still  nothing  ! 

It  is  because  you  want  Happiness,  that  you  want  Immortality.  Your 
soul  craves  Happiness,  and  it  will  not  be  denied  it ;  and  then,  because 
you  possess  it  not  now,  you  feel  you  must  possess  it  hereafter  !  JEST  And 
you  will  possess  it — assuredly  that  yearning  of  your  heart  will  be  an- 
swered !  There  is  no  other  Rationale  than  Happiness  ;  for  at  last,  there 


47 

is  nothing  but  Happiness !  If  I  made  not  provision  for  Happiness — 
jJSTeven  for  your  Happiness — infallibly  you  must  reject  my  Statement. 
And  if  I  do  not,  then  reject !  Is  it  not  honest — putting  you  on  your 
guard  ?  Be  all  care,  and  see  that  you  are  not  cheated! 

But  first,  know  that  others  are  Happy,  even  if  you  are  not.     Know  that 
the  wide  Universe  to-day,  is  only  a  Universe  of  Happiness  !     Know  that 
all  planets,  not  only,  of  our  solar  system,  but  of  all  solar  systems,  pro- 
gress with  their  human  beings,  to  perfect  ripeness  and  Happiness  !     And 
then   there   are  perfectly-innumerable  planets   to-day,   that   are  already 
ripe ;  and    whose    infinite    populations   are   therefore,    even    now,    only 
Happy  !     And  though  there  are  other  planets,  even  to  being  likeieise  in- 
numerable, that  are  not  now  ripe  and  Happy,  because  they  are   not  yet 
o/o?  enough  to  be,  still  there  is  an  incalculably  larger  number   of  human 
beings  on  the  ripe  and  Happy  planets,  than  on  these  others  ;  and  that  is 
to  say,  that  there  is  an  incalculably  larger  number  of  human  beings  now 
Happy,  than  of  those  not  yet  Happy — Happiness  incalculably  and  infin- 
itely preponderates!     For,  as  every  planet   has  to   be   old — passed    from 
infancy,  mature,  ripe — before  it  can  be  Happy,  so  it  bears  human  beings 
all  the  time  it  /*  old,  or  ripe  ;  and  that  time  is  as  much  longer  than  the 
time  of  its  infancy,  or   unripeness,  as   the   maturity  of  a  man   is  longer 
than  his  infancy,  or  that  of  a  tree  is  longer  than  its  :  so  that  every  planet 
bears  incomparably  more  beings  after  it  is  ripe,  than  before — bears  incom- 
parably move' Sappy  beings,  than   it  ever  does   Unhappy  ones  !     And 
also,  in  every  solar  system,  the  outer  planets,  are  not  only,  the    oldest,  as 
given  off  from  the  Sun  first,  but  equally,  they  live   on   longest,  as  going 
back  to  the  Sun  last ;  so  that  their  whole  cereer  is  transcendently  longest, 
as  thus  over-running  at  both  ends  !     And  likewise,  the  outer  planets  are 
greatly  largest,  [as  a  comprehending  statement,]  as  running  this  so-much- 
longer  career  ;  and  both,  as  being  thus  larger,  and  also,  as  existing  thus 
longer,  they  have  ever  so  many  times  the  greatest  number  of  human  be- 
ings— and  then  all  this  while,  these  outer  planets,  only  Happy,  and  the 
beings  they  bear,  only  Happy  !     So   that  there  are  these   so-great,  pop- 
ulous,   Happy   planets,    existing   in    every    solar    system,    through    an 
immensely  long   duration    when    there    are  no   others   in  that  system — 
either,    the   others    have    not   yet   been    born,    or,    they    have    already 
died ;  and    then   all   their   duration    is  between   the   two   parts    of   the 
solitary  duration  of  these  outer  ones  !     So  that  every  solar  system,  of  no 
matter  how  many  planets,  during  most  of  its  continuance  has  only  Happy 
planets  in  it ;  and  when  it  has  some  that  are  not  Happy,  yet  during  most 
of  that  time,  it  has  most  that  are  Happy  ;  and  during  all  its  time,  it  has 
none  but  what  will  be  Happy — seeing  every   planet   finally  becomes  so  ! 
And  then  so  that,  the   same   thing  is  true   of  the    Universe,  made  up  of 
infinite  solar  systems  :  That  all  the   time   of  its  continuance,  even  from 
Eternity  to  Eternity,  it  has  inconceivably  and  infinitely  more  Happy  planets 
in  it  than  any  others,  and  inconceivably  and  infinitely  more  Happy  beings 
in  it  than  any  others  ;  and  then  in   the  last  analysis,  it  is  nothing  but  a 
Universe  of  Happy  Planets — nothing  but  a  Universe  of  Happy  Beings  ! 
So,  you  are  unhappy,  but  the  Universe  is  not — and  then  you  are  only  an 
infinitesimal  exception  !     And  you  are  an  exception  even  to  your  own 
world  ;  for  this  whole  world  will  be  Happy,  during  more  ages  than  you 


48 

have  known  woes  —  during  Millenniums  that  shall  swallow  up  your 
record,  and  blot  out  the  memory  of  your  unhappiness  forever  ! 

Human  beings  will  yet  become  utterly  Happy  in  this  world  !  They 
will  attain  to  the  highest  perfection  of  which  even  their  exalted  natures 
are  capable,  and  still  be  Mortals !  They  will  all  be  Clairvoyant — the 
children  will  be  born  Clairvoyant !  And  they  will  all  live  Jong,  as"  the  Race 
have  never  yet  had  any  experience,  seeing  there  has  never  been  one  healthy 
man  on  the  earth.  And  then  they  will  come  to  knoio  everything,  even  the 
very  Universe  !  For  the  whole  Universe  is  but  Solar  Systems,  each 
System  with  its  great  History — first,  its  growth  from  Matter  into  a  Sun, 
and  then  into  Planets,  and  Moons,  and  Comets,  and  Meteors,  and  all 
things  Celestial ;  as  also,  into  granite,  and  air.  and  water,  and  earth,  and 
vegetables,  and  animals,  and  men,  and  all  things  Terrestrial — then,  its 
continuance  in  all  this  mig'nty  unfolding,  during  all  the  amazing  ages 
constituting  its  true  life,  and  till  it  can  no  longer  usher  its  great  fruit  of 
human  beings,  into  existence — and  now,  its  decay,  and  return,  through 
all  the  long  processes  of  death  and  decomposition,  till  the  whole  of  it 
becomes  resolved  again  into  that  great  Matter  in  Space !  This  is  the 
History  of  the  Universe  :  and  when  human  beings  know  this,  they  will 
know  all  !  And  the  human  beings  who  shall  be  hereafter,  will  know 
this  :  they  will  know  their  own  Solar  System,  and  then  they  will  know  all 
Systems — they  will  read  the  perfect  riddle  of  Existence!  Then  they  will 
be  Happy,  then  they  will  be  satisfied  !  You  want  to  be  Immortal,  to  be 
Happy  ;  but  these  will  already  be  Happy,  even  so  that  they  will  not  need 
to  be  Immortal — they  will  already  be  as  Happy  as  they  can  be,  they  will 
be  drinking  in  their  perfect  fill!  There  will  be  nothing-  more  possible, 
and  so  they  will  desire  nothing  more  !  So  that  after  all,  you  are  only  an 
exception,  even  among  your  own  race,  in  wanting  Immortality  !  The  ripe 
world  of  mankind  will  not  ask  to  be  Immortal ;  and  you,  and  the  few 
with  you  who  ask  to  be,  do  so,  only  because  you  live  before  the  world  is 
ripe  !  The  Happy  world  of  mankind  will  not  need  to  be  Immortal ;  and 
you  do,  only  because  you  live  before  the  world  is  Happy  !  But  somebody 
had  to  live  first :  the  ripe  world  could  not  be,  till  after  the  world  that 
was  not  ripe  ;  nor  the  Happy  world,  till  after  the  Unhappy  one — and 
then  it  fell  to  your  lot  to  be  born  now,  and  not  in  the  Good  Time  Com- 
ing !  The  statement  is  perfect ;  only,  that  you  have  as  much  need  to  be 
Happy,  as  any  of  those  who  shall  come  after — and  I  am  yet  to  show 
you,  that  verily,  you  shall  be  ! 

So  that  there  is  nothing  out  of  joint,  if  there  is  no  Immortality  !  The 
Race  is  not  a  failure,  but  a  success  ;  and  you  and  all  others  living  now, 
are  only  the  exceptions  before  the  success  is  finally  inaugurated — step- 
ping-stones to  the  success,  essential  to  it,  parts  of  it !  Still  the  Race 
have  a  destiny  !  Still  is  Man  more  than  the  brute  !  Still  is  he  all  we 
have  ever  pictured  him — and  more  ;  for  one  day  he  will  be  Perfect .' 
He  will  be  all  one  with  the  Infinite,  for  he  will  be  master  of  the  Infinite  ! 
And  this  is  what  no  Immortality  has  ever  made  him,  nor  allowed  him  to 
become  !  But  every  Immortality  has  kept  him  longing,  unsatisfied,  un- 
happy— still  far,  and  forever  far,  from  his  Goal  !  But  now,  he  will  scale 
the  topmost  hight ! 

For  those  who  will  live  after,  even  if  they  could  be   Immortal,  yet 


49 

would  not  be  willing  to  be  !     Bid  them   live   forever—but   at   last,  they 
would  want  to  die  !     There  would   be   nothing   new,  and   nothing   »/o, 
and  then  nothing  to  live  for  !     The  old  enjoyment  would  tire  ;  the  Hap- 
piness that  had  been  perfect,   would  become   imperfection,  through  mo- 
notony ;  they  would  become  surfeited   with  it,  sick  of  it,  unable  to  l-'.ir 
it :  they  would  long  for  a  change,  and  as  the   only  change,  they  svould 
long  to  go  to  sleep  !     Even  now,  men   could  not  live,  if  they  could   r.o1 
daily  lie  down  and  iorget  themselves  ;  but  sleep  annihilates  them  and  nil 
their  states,  and   they  wake   up  to   a   continually  new  world  !     And  s. 
when  these  could  no  longer  break  up  the  monotony,  even  by  sleep — wheu 
each  waking  but  brought  to  their  realization  the  same  work!  —  then  they 
would  long  to  sleep   the  sleep  of  ages  !     So   far   from  not   being  able  :o 
reach  perfection,  they  would  pass  it,  and  sigh  to  be  delivered   from 
And  even  if  there  could  be  spirits  anywhere  in  the  Universe,  [that  im- 
possible supposition,  again  !]  yet  the   same  thing  would   have   to  be  true 
of  them.  There  would  be  nothing  more  for  them  to  know,  than  for  men 
nothing  but  their  own  Solar  System  ;  [of  course  including  (as  in  the  • 
of  men,)  all  Astronomy  ;  but  men  would  master,  by  means  of  Telesco;:/  s, 
Clairvoyance,  and  Intuition,  all  the  Astronomy  of  their  heavens,  an  1 
would  be  a  picture   of  the  Universal   Heavens  !]  and   they  would   k:;.,\v 
that,  and  then  know  all.     And  all  other  spirits  could  tell  them  no  rn ••;•• 
for  they  would  know  only  the  same.     So  that  at  last,  infallibly,  they,  too. 
would  long  to  lie  down,  and  go  to  sleep  !     And  all  this  is  only  in  accord- 
ance'with,  and  a  part  of.  that  great  Economy  of  the  Universe,  that  •.!! 
things  should  forever  come  and  go — all  things  come  and  go,  and  nothing 
forever  remain!     They  may   not   remain,  because  they   cannot   forev- :• 
enjoy  !  and  then  they  must  go,  and  others  come  and  enjoy  in  their  s.'ea  i 
So  that  they,  in  their  several   coming  and   going,  yet  make   the    E'er.1  .-.I 
Universe,;  and  equally,  in  their  several  enjoyiny,  make  the  E/ernct  J-J/t- 
joyment  of  the  Universe  !     There   could   be  no  Economy  equal    to  this 
All  things  existing  in  cycles,  but  each  cycle  proportionate  to  (lie  il/'n'-.j j 
and    the  endless   succession    of   cycles,    the    endless    Duration    of    tut: 
Universe  ! 

So  that  now,  Immortality  becomes  more  preposterous  than  ever  ;  foi 
instead  of  anything  existing  forever,  it  is  truly,  that  a  whole  Forev-; 
exists  after  everything!  Instead  of  being  the  Eternal  World,  ^t5'"'-i  e 
Eternal  World  winds  up,  and  a  whole  Eternity  comes  after  it  ! 
thing  that  exists,  is  only  one  of  this  infinite  succession  of  tilings,  all  of 
which,  make  the  Universe;  and  then,  long  after  it  has  ceased  to  exVi, 
that  Universe  will  exist,  and  exist  forever  ;  its  Eternity  will  roll  on,  :;-:cl 
on,  and  still  on,  and  forever  on,  swallowing  up  all  these  things  that  ever 
helped  make  it,  in  absolutely  an  infinite  Oblivion  ! 

And,  so  that  Eternal  Progression,  is  not  only,  the  same  ridiculous  im- 
possibility of  an  Eternal  World — Eternal  Progression,  with  a  wh> .•!<; 
Eternity  after  it — Eternal  Progression,  with  a  whole  Eternity  after  the 
Progression  must  infallibly  have  ceased,  and  the  being  making  the  Pro- 
gression, and  now  finishing  and  passing  it,  must  have  wished  to  cease — 
but  also,  even  if  it  could  exist,  yet  in  being  Eternal  Progression,  it  would 
be  an  Eternal  Curse ;  for  it  would  be  the  eternal  prevention  of  Happi- 
ness  !  jj^jKEternal  Progression  toward  Perfection,  is  the  eternal  den'<;l 
4 


50 

of  Perfection — and  that  is  the  eternal  denial  of  Satisfying!  Eternal 
approach  to  Happiness,  is  eternal  lack  to  lay  hold  of  that  Happiness  ! 

And  as  thus,  this  Earth  is  no  failure,  without  Immortality,  even  so 
the  Universe  is  none.  Not,  that  it  resolves  into  that  great  good,  of  hu- 
man beings  everywhere  and  forever,  but  verily,  that  it  develops  all  those 
human  beings  into  utterness,  and  destiny,  even  as  the  Earth  develops  all 
its  human  beings.  For  the  same  thing  that  is  true  on  our  Planet,  is  true 
on  every  other  Planet  in  the  Universe,  that  at  last,  its  inhabitants  are 
complete  without  Immortality,  so  that  they  do  not  need  it,  and  even  so 
that,  absolutely,  they  wonld  reject  it !  And  then  the  Universe  is  com- 
plete without  it !  Instead  of  that  Eternal  Progression,  it  is  all  Eternal 
Perfection — and  it  is  Perfection  to-day  !  An  infinite  infinity  of  its  Plan- 
ets, are  already  unfolded  into  this  final  ripeness  of  their  Races,  and  all 
the  rest  of  the  Planets  yet  will  unfold  into  it !  On  everv  Planet,  all  are 
a  part  of  the  result ;  for  nearly  all  are  it,  and  the  rest  are  a  necessity  and 
part  of  those  !  Every  one  human  being  in  the  Universe  takes  his  place, 
is  even  a  part  of  this  to-day's  Perfection  !  The  Universe  exists  to  develop 
the  Grand  Man,  made  up  of  men — jtST'and  the  Grand  Man  is  Perfect 
every  moment  of  the  Eternities  ! 

Think  what  is  going  on  in  the  Universe,  to-day  !  There  are  all  these 
innumerable  Planets  that  are  ripe — and  then  picture  what  is  taking  place 
on  them  !  Each  of  these  Planets  is  the  seat  of  a  bliss,  greater  than  you 
ever  dreamed  of  in  any  heaven  ;  greater,  inconceivably,  than  any  heaven 
could  ever  give  !  The  unnumbered  populations  of  all  these  worlds,  are 
rejoicing  in  a  Happiness  Ineffable  !  They  do  not  suffer,  they  do  not 
weep,  they  know  no  longing,  their  cup  is  full — they  are  all  one  infinite 
delight !  Not  one  is  left,  not  one  that  does  not  drink  in  dear  and  sweet 
and  satisfying,  till  his  heart  runs  over  !  It  would  make  your  heart  break, 
and  become  like  water,  to  take  in  half  the  measure  of  their  joy  !  And 
this  is  everywhere,  this  is  the  Universe  !  There  are  unspeakably  more 
suck  Planets  than  any  others,  and  all  the  rest  are  growing  to  be  like 
them  ! 

Old  hymns  that  we  have  heard  and  sung,  and  that  our  blessed  mothers 
taught  us  when  we  were  young  and  tender — but  hymns  which  were  only 
superstitions,  as  voicing  what  had  no  existence — yet  become  impeccable 
and  immaculate  truth,  when  translated  into  the  history  of  the  Universe  ! 

Beyond  this  vale  of  tears, 

There  is  a  life  above, 
Unmeasured  by  the  flight  of  years, 

And  all  that  life  is  love  ! 

There  is  such  a  life,  beyond  this  Earth — above  it,  superior  to  it — on  these 
innumerable  ripe  Planets  of  the  Universe  !  It  is  the  life  all  these  Happy 
beings  are  living  to-day  ! 

There  is  a  land  of  pure  delight, 

Where  saints  immortal  reign  ; 
Eternal  day  excludes  the  night, 

And  pleasures  banish  pain ! 

It  is  in  the  Universe,  that  land  is  the  Universe  !  Men  are  the  "  saints" 
that  "immortal  reign  ;"  but  if  to  be  beatified  is  to  be  a  saint,  then  the 


51 

men  are  saints,  too  !  And  they  reign  "  immortal,"  because  it  is  an 
eternal  land,  and  eternally  there  are  men  dwelling  there  ! 

Sorrow  shall  forever  fly, 

Sin  shall  never  enter  there, 
Tears  be  wiped  from  every  eye, 

Pain  in  endless  bliss  expire  ! 

It  is  all  in  the  Universe,  it  is  all  in  the  Universe,  to-day  ! 

In  heaven  alone  no  sin  is  found, ' 
And  there's  no  weeping  there  ! 

'Tis  the  very  record  on  all  these  innumerable  Worlds,  this  moment  ! 

There  shall  I  bathe  my  weary  soul, 

In  seas  of  heavenly  rest  ; 
And  not  a  wave  of  trouble  roll, 

Across  my  peaceful  breast ! 

This  already  is  on  all  these  glorious  Worlds  !  Only,  that  the  souls  of 
the  dwellers  there,  were  never  weary  !  But,  they  are  all  Happy,  and 
they  always  were  ! 

There  everlasting  spring  abides, 

And  never-fading  flowers  ; 
Death,  like  a  narrow  sea,  divides, 
This  heavenly  land  from  ours  ! 

Not  "death, "but  only,  want  of  progression,  "  divides  this  land  from 
ours  !  "  And  ours  will  yet  progress,  to  be  a  part  of  that  land  ! 

0  the  transporting,  rapturous  scene, 

That  rises  to  my  sight ! 
Sweet  fields/arrayed  in  living  green, 

And  rivers  of  delight ! 

There  generous  fruits  that  never  fail, 

On  trees  immortal  grow ; 
There  rocks  and  hills  and  brooks  and  vales, 

With  milk  and  honey  flow  ! 

N"o  chilling  winds  nor  poisonous  breath, 

Can  reach  that  healthful  shore  ; 
Sorrow  and  sickness,  pain  and  death, 

Are  felt  and  feared  no  more  ! 

And  "  death"  is  not  "  felt"  nor  "  feared"  there  !  But  at  last,  it  is  itself 
life  to  die  !  [And  one  day,  it  will  be,  here  ;  and  even  now,  it  is — if  men 
only  knew  it !] — And  leave  out  God  and  Immortality,  and  all  these 
hymns,  of  all  ages,  have  an  infinite  ground-work  of  reality,  as  shadows  and 
prophesies  of  this  dear,  dear  Bliss  existing  everywhere,  and  on  which 
the  heart  of  man  has  so  loved  to  dwell !  But  new  Poets  will  arise,  and 
sing  these  glories  of  the  Universe  free  from  those  superstitions,  and  in 
loftier  strains  than  men  ever  sang  the  praises  of  that  old  heaven  ! 

Then  the  Universe  is  this  Infinite  Success  !  At  last,  all  that  is  possi- 
ble— all  that  we  can  ever  conceive — of  Good,  and  Perfection,  and  Hap- 
piness, is  already  real !  So  that,  if  a  man  would  think  of  a  heaven,  yet  he 
cannot — it  is  all  heaven  :  the  Universe  is  nothing  but  one  Infinite,  and 
Eternal  Heaven!  As  likewise,  if  a  man  would  dream  of  a  God,  because 
he  must  organize  his  idea  of  the  Holy,  the  Perfect,  the  Ineffable,  yet 
equally,  he  cannot — for  all  of  Holy  and  Perfect  and  Ineffable  is  already 


52 

here!  By  an  infinite- infinite  difference,  there  is  more  of  Glory  and  Bles- 
sedness and  Perfection,  and  all  that  men  haye  called  Holiness  and  Di- 
vinity, in  the  Universe  to-day,  than  could  ever  be  embodied  in  all  the 
Gods  men  ever  created  ! 

jtgrSo  that,  when  you  leave  your  own  little  world,  and  launch  out 
into  the  illimitable  ocean  of  being,  and  reach  the  great  Existence-of-all, 
the  Universe  is  Happiness,  the  Universe  is  Heaven  ! 

But  now.  see  how  this  same  Universe  would  become  an  Infinite  Fail- 
ure, with  Immortality  !  Remember,  that  men  have  believed  in  Immor- 
tality because  they  did  not  know  that  the  Universe  was  Eternal,  and  that 
it  could  not  be  Eternal  if  there  was  Immortality  !  They  have  believed 
in  Immortality,  because  they  have  believed  in  a  beginning  of  the  Uni- 
verse ;  and  Immortality  does  root  in  a  beginning.  And  then  your  Uni- 
verse, if  you  are  going  to  have  Immortality  in  it,  had  to  have  a  begin- 
ning— and  at  once,  it  has  lost  that  whole  Eternity,  beforehand  ! — it  is  Finite 
in  Time  !  And  then  it  is  Finite  in  Space  —for  what  is  created,  must  be 
Finite — and  so  it  is  oil  nothing  to  what  it  might  have  been  ! — And  also, 
it  might  not  have  existed  at  all :  for  it  did  not  exist,  that  whole  Eternity  ; 
and  there  was  no  more  reason  for  its  existing  when  it  did,  than  for  its  ex- 
isting before — and  so  there  was  no  reason  for  its  ever  existing  !  And  so 
your  whole  Universe  might  have  been  literal  nothing  ! — And  again,  your 
Universe  may  at  any  time  cease  to  exist !  —  even  now,  while  I  am  speak- 
ing it  may  cease  !  For  it  did  not  need  to  exist  that  whole  Eternity  ;  and 
no  more  does  it  need  to  exist  now — and  then  it  may  cease  to  exist  now  ! — 
And  once  more,  it  will  cease  to  exist — infallibly  and  inevitably,  Avill  ! 
Not  only,  because  it  did  not  need  to  exist  forever,  therefore  it  will  not 
need  to  ;  but  also,  and  especially,  because  it  did  not  exist  forever,  there- 
fore it  will  not  exist  forever — because  it  began,  it  will  end  !  What  has 
one  end  has  two  ends — and  then  your  Universe  has  two  !  So,  here  is 
your  whole  Universe,  begun,  carried  through,  and  ended,  in  less  time 
than  it  would  take  to  sing  a  song  !  It  was  nothing  at  both  ends,  and 
still  liked  to  be  the  same  all  the  way  through  the  middle  ! — But  then, 
once  more,  and  now  to  finish  the  picture  :  Your  very  Immortality  will 
cease  :  when  all  other  things  go  out,  this  will !  J^~So  that  you  are 
going  to  have  no  Immortality,  have  it  all  your  own  way  ;  and  then  it  is  / 
who  believe  in  a  future-  state  of  existence,  and  not  you,  who  do  not ! 
Your  Immortality,  in  eating  all  other  things  up,  eats  itself  up  ! 

So  that,  with  Immortality,  the  Universe  disappears  !  This  that  is,  is 
no  Universe  ;  but  only  a  liitle  bit  of  a  nothing,  almost  as  small  as  that 
God,  and  soon  to  be  quite  !  ^JST'Andrew  Jackson  Davis,  and  all  these 
Spiritualists,  and  the  comprehending  fraternity  of  Immortalists,  have  no 
Universe  !  All  they  ever  dreamed  of,  dwindles  to  this  pitiful  pretext, 
less  than  the  shadow  of  a  shade  !  And  even  this  will  not  stay  for  their 
asking;  but  will  presently  wind  itself  up,  and  go  out  in  Annihilation  ! 
Minus  one  Eternity,  it  will  soon  be  minus  the  other  ! 

So  that,  with  any  kind  of  a  God  there  is  no  Universe,  and  with  any 
Immortality  there  is  no  Universe  !  What  any  kind  of  a  God  is  needed 
for,  is  to  create  a  Universe,  and  then  there  is  none  ;  and  Immortality  makes 
the  Universe  both  begin,  and  so  end,  and  then  there  is  no  Universe  ! 

Then,  JVcm-Immortality  is  infinitely  better  than  Immortality  !    It  gives 


53 

a  whole  infinity  more  of  Good,  and  Perfection,  and  Happiness,  because 
it  gives  a  whole  infinity  more  of  Existence  !  There  is  no  more  any 
question  of  choice,  between  the  two,  than  between  Everything  and 
Nothing  ! 

But  so,  that  is  indeed  true,  in  perfect  despite,  that  this  very  tiling  men 
have  always  been  clamoring  for,  is  after  all,  a  contradiction — it  subvert* 
itself!'  Even  give  it  to  those  asking  for  it,  but  yet,  it  wouldn't  be:  it 
won't  be — absolutely,  of  its  o^n  self  it  WON'T  be  !  Make  men  Im- 
mortal, but  yet,  they  would  go  out,  because  the  Universe  would  go  out  ! 

And,  if  Immortality  thus  resolves  the  Universe  into  failure,  equally, 
and  more,  has  it  thus  far  condemned  this  world  to  be  only  a  failute  ! 
Men  could  not  put  this  existence  to  its  'uses,  because  they  must  be  Lav- 
ing to  do  with  another  one  :  they  could  not  work  out  the  Happiness  for 
which  only,  they  had  existence,  because  they  must  be  continually  and 
only,  preparing  for  Happiness :  they  could  not  at  last  be  we/i,  because 
they  were  one  day  going  to  be  something  else  !  I  declare  that  the  whole 
Human  Race  up  to  this  hour,  has  been  thrown  away  on  the  future  ;  Im- 
mortality has  defeated  Life ;  Heaven  has  swallowed  up  Earth  !  And 
then  Immortality  is  Evil ;  it  is  Curse  ;  it  is  Damnation  ;  it  is  Hell  !  And 
then  men  will  blot  it  out — and  then  that  will  be  Salvation  !  Instead  of 
Immortality  saving  men,  giving  them  heaven,  the  heaven  will  be  3'o.'?- 
Immortality  ! 

Next  to  that  God,  Immortality  has  been  the  Evil — and  it  is  still  part 
of  the  6W-Evil  !  It  has  cursed  like  Religion,  and  it  is  still  on .  \\ith 
that!  J3?Mt  is  all  Earth's  woes  together,  for  it  alone  is  enough  to  create 
them  all ! 

But  now,  after  so  long  a  time,  the  final  link  is  to  be  added  to  (his  won- 
derful chain  of  argument.  All  other  things  have  given  their  voice  in 
favor  of  no  Immortality,  and  now  you  are  to  give  yours  !  The  Universe, 
with  its  Eternity  and  Infinity  of  Men  ;  the  innumerable  Happy  Planets, 
with  their  already  Perfect  Races  ;  and  even  the  future  Race  that  shrill  be 
on  Earth,  together  with  the  sore  need  of  the  Race  that  is  now — all  these 
have  declared  for  the  result,  and  now  you  are  to  do  the  same  !  Everything 
else  has  been  gained  over,  and  at  last  you  are  to  be  !  For  it  is  natural 
for  man  not  to  be  Immortal ;  it  is  natural  for  him  to  go  out  when  the 
time  comes  !  It  is  natural  for  him  to  go  to  sleep  at  night ;  (and  when 
he  is  asleep  he  w  out !)  and  the  fact  that  he  does  not  want  to  go  to  sleep 
during  the  day,  is  no  proof  that  he  will  not  want  to,  then.  He  may  be 
ever  so  wakeful  now ;  but  in  a  few  hours  he  will  feel  he  must  go  10  sleep, 
it  will  be  his  bliss  to  go  to  sleep.  So  it  is  natural  for  all  men  to  die — 
not  natural  before,  but  just  as  certainly  when  the  time  comes.  Now  it 
is  a  man's  nature  to  live,  but  presently,  it  will  be  just  as  much  his  nature 
not  to  live  ;  he  will  reach  a  point  when  he  can  do  nothing  but  die,  and 
then  it  will  be  his  nature  to  die.  Kill  a  man  in  a  minute  :  one  moment 
ago,  he  was  all  strength  and  vigor — he  was  infinitely  averse  to  dying ; 
but  during  those  sixty  seconds,  his  strength  has  all  gone,  his  vigor  has 
become  utterly  exhausted,  and  now  he  wants  to  die — it  is  tho  only  thing- 
there  is  left !  Kill  him  instantly  ;  and  instantly  he  wants  to  die,  for  in- 
stantly you  have  killed  his  desire  to  live — instantly  you  have  put  it  out 
of  his  power  to  do  anything  but  die  !  Bring  water  to  a  level,  and  it  will 


54 

"flow  to  water :  bring  man  to  a  level  with  death,  and  he  must  flow  to 
death  !  Absolutely,  every  man  dies  when  he  wants  to,  and  wants  to  die 
when  he  dies  !  So,  it  is  natural  for  a  man  to  go  out ;  not  now,  when  he 
shrinks  from  it,  but  still  just  as  surely,  when  the  moment  arrives.  Now 
it  is  his  nature  to  continue,  because  he  has  power  to  continue ;  but  let  his 
power  ebb  away,  and  his  whole  being  run  down  to  that  zero,  of  ceasing, 
and  at  once  it  is  his  perfect  nature  to  cease  !  He  can  do  nothing  but 
cease,  and  therefore  he  wishes  to  do  nothing  but  cease  !  He  has  no  power 
to  continue,  and  therefore  he  does  not  want  to  continue — he  has  no 
power  to  want  to  continue  !  A  moment  before,  one  second  before,  since 
then  he  could  continue,  it  was  his  nature  to,  his  desire  to ;  but  now, 
since  he  can  not,  it  is  his  nature  and  desire  no  longer  !  Now  it  is  his  na- 
ture to  cease,  because  that  is  all  that  is  left ;  he  is  brought  to  a  level  with 
soul-death,  and  he  must  flow  to  soul-death  !  And  when  thus,  it  is  his 
nature  to  go  out,  then  it  is  his  harmony,  his  Happiness,  his  bliss,  his 
heaven  to  go  out — then  he  wants  to  go  out ! 

Here  is  a  man  dying.  His  body  is  utterly  wasted,  his  strength  is  all 
gone,  the  pulse  has  left  his  wrist,  every  breath  they  expect  to  be  his  last. 
But  his  soul  is  as  strong  as  ever  !  His  eyes  open,  beaming  more  than  their 
former  intelligence  ;  a  glow  lights  up  his  features ;  the  muscles  of  his 
mouth  contract ;  "  I  know  that  I  am  Immortal !  "  breaks  from  his  lips — 
and  he  is  dead.  And  that  very  instant  he  did  die — go  out !  While  he 
was  uttering  those  words,  he  was  not  yet  ready  to  go  out,  he  had  so 
much  strength  left ;  but  it  was  an  expiring  effort,  that  made  a  full  end 
of  his  strength,  and  then  he  was  ready — and  then  he  went !  And  the 
reason  why  his  soul  was  thus  strong  to  the  last  instant,  though  his  body 
was  not,  was  because,  in  his  case;  the  brain  (for  that  is  the  soul,)  drew 
off,  and  appropriated  to  itself,  more  of  the  now-exhausted  vital  force,  than 
the  rest  of  the  body  did.  First,  when  a  man  is  dying,  he  has  but  little 
life,  strength,  or  vital  force  left,  to  be  distributed  to  the  different  parts  of 
his  system.  Secondly,  those  parts  are  not  all  equally  strong,  and  there- 
fore they  do  not  all  receive  equal  or  proportionate  supplies  of  that  little 
life  remaining.  It  is  in  dying,  as  it  is  in  health.  In  health,  the  head 
sometimes  robs  the  body  of  blood — the  head  is  hot,  and  the  feet  and 
hands  are  cold ;  or,  the  muscles  rob  the  brain  of  vital  force — the  man  is 
physically,  but  not  mentally  developed.  So,  in  dying,  sometimes  the 
vital  force  is  almost  entirely  concentrated  in  the  brain  ;  and  then  it  or  the 
soul  is  strong  to  think  and  will  and  be  its  utter  self,  perhaps  for  whole 
hours  after  the  body  is  as  good  as  dead,  and  a  large  part  of  it  is  dead, 
and  already  decomposing :  but  at  other  times,  the  body  exhausts  the  vi- 
tality, and  the  brain  is  left  to  die  first.  And  it  actually  does  die  first — it 
dies — though  the  rest  of  the  man  is  alive.  The  man  is  unconscious  for 
hours,  perhaps  for  days,  before  he  dies  :  his  mind,  his  soul,  has  already 
fallen  into  its  oblivion  !  His  soul  has  now  gone  to  its  last  sleep,  just  as 
before,  it  used  to  go  to  its  nightly  sleep.  And  as,  when  the  man  used  to 
sleep,  his  soul  was  for  the  time  being,  dead,  only  it  could  be  waked  again, 
so  now  it  is  dead,  only  it  cannot  be  waked  again.  For,  thirdly,  it  is  the 
animal  brain  that  generates  the  vital  force  in  a  man,  equally,  whether  he 
is  living,  or  dying :  it  is  the  animal  brain  that  underlies  his  whole  life — 
it  is  this  that  is  the  last  seat  of  life.  The  animal  brain  is  the  perfect 


55 

main-spring  of  all.  So,  as  long  as  it  lives,  the  man  lives,  for  it  sap- 
plies  life  to  the  man,  whether  body,  or  other  brain  ;  but  when  at  last,  it 
gives  out,  there  is  an  instant  and  utter  end  of  everything.  So  that,  in 
the  case  of  this  man  who  died  proclaiming  himself  Immortal,  the  soul- 
brain  absorbed  all  the  life  generated  by  the  animal  brain  ;  and  therefore 
the  soul  was  strong  and  perfect,  even  to  the  last.  It  was  strong  and 
perfect  as  long  as  the  animal  brain  held  out,  because  all  the  life  that  man- 
ufactured, this  had.  So  it  was  strong  enough  to  say,  "  I  know  that  I  am 
Immortal ! "  but  that  very  instant  the  animal  brain  gave  out — and  the  sou! 
went  out !  The  main-spring  failed,  and  ail  the  works  stopped.  The  sun 
grew  dark,  and  it  was  total  eclipse — the  light  of  that  soul  was  obscured 
forever  !  There  was  no  longer  any  fountain,  there  was  no  longer  any 
stream  !  The  source  was  cut'off,  and  nothing  (;ouldy?ow>  from  the  source  ! 
The  brain  that  supplied  life  died,  (from  final  and  absolute  exhaustion,) 
and  the  brain  that  received  it,  received  no  more  !  The  animal  brain,  a* 
last  utterly  spent,  died  instantly ;  and  the  soul  died  instantly,  even  with 
those  words  upon  its  lips  !  And  as  to  the  man  believing  himself  Im- 
mortal, even  in  the  very  article  of  death,  he  believed  so  before,  and  then 
he  believed  so  to  the  last ;  but  in  one  instant  more,  he  didn't  believe  so, 
for  he  didn't  exist  to  believe  !  And  of  course,  he  idshed'to  be  Immortal 
to  the  last ;  but  equally,  in  one  instant  more,  he  didn't  wish  so,  for  he 
didn't  exist  to  wish  so  ! 

[And  right  here,  one  word  more,  about  the  brain,  and  its  being  the 
soul,  and  then  that  soul  dying  instead  of  being  Immortal.  It  is  time 
now,  once  for  all,  to  dear  up  the  whole  thing,  and  make  it  so  infinitely 
plain  that  even  a  fool  can  see  !  The  brain  is  at  last  the  thing — the  be>t 
part  of  the  body,  the  crown  and  perfection  of  the  whole,  and  in  a  true 
sense,  the  great  sum  and  substance  of  the  whole — but  yet,  it  is  depend- 
ent. It  is  not  the  original  thing,  but  on  the  contrary,  it  is  derived  ;  it  is 
not  back  of  all,  but  something  is  back  of  it.  It  is  worth  ten  thousand 
animal  brains,  but  yet,  it  absolutely  depends  on  the  animal  brain,  hangs 
on  it,  lives  on  it,  could  not  exist  but  for  it.  The  animal  brain  existed 
first,  and  created  the  brain  ;  and  it  perpetually  supports  it,  vitalizes  it, 
and  keeps  it  going.  So  the  soul-brain,  though  it  is  the  best  brain,  is  yet 
eternally  in  the  power,  and  at  the  mercy,  of  the  animal  brain  ;  and  the 
animal  brain  is  the  poorest  brain,  that  is,  is  the  brain  it  is,  for  the  very 
purpose  of  developing  the  other  brain — the  animal  brain  is  the  mean?,  to 
the  other  brain  as  the  end.  The  use  of  the  animal  brain  is  to  develop 
the  other ;  and  in  that  sense,  the  animal  brain  is  more  useful  than  the 
other:  as,  in  a  true  sense,  the  means  are  always  more  useful  than  even 
the  end,  seeing  it  is  the  means  that  give  the  end  !  So  also,  the  soid  is 
body  ;  and  being  such,  it  is  incomparably  the  best  part  of  the  body  :  but 
still,  it  is  dependent  on  the  rest  of  the  body,  which  yet  is  not  so  yciod  as 
it.  The  soul  is  worth  ever  so  many  times  more  than  all  the  rest  of  the 
body,  and  yet  it  could  not  exist  but  for  the  rest;  and  then,  though 
worth  more,  it  is  still  in  the  power  and  at  the  mercy  of  the  rest !  And 
the  rest  of  the  body  is  comparatively  worthless,  that  is,  is  just  what  it  i?, 
simply  for  the  sake  of  the  soul — that  it  may  unfold  it:  the  use  of  Hit- 
rest  of  the  body  is  to  unfold  the  soul  ;  and  in  that  sense,  it  is  the  most 
useful,  that  is,  worth  most.  The  body  is  the  means  of  the  soul,  and  the 


56 

soul  is  the  end  of  the  body.  But  the  very  fact  of  the  soul  being  thus  the 
end  of  the  body,  though  it  makes  it  transcendently  better  than  the  body, 
yet  inevitably  makes  it  hang  utterly  helpless  on  the  body — because  it 
thus  makes  the  body  the  means  of  it !  So  now,  comes  death,  and  then 
what  ?  Why,  simply  this,  clearer  than  the  noonday  sun,  that  everything 
dies,  brain,  soul,  body  and  all,  in  one  !  Though  the  brain  is  worth  moie 
than  all  animal  brains  together,  yet  when  the  animal  brain  dies,  the 
brain  has  to  die,  because  after  all,  it  depends  on  the  animal  brain  ! 
Though  the  soul  is  so  infinitely  better  than  the  rest  of  the  body,  yet  when 
the  rest  of  the  body  dies,  the  soul  dies,  because  it  is  the  rest  of  the  body 
that  makes  the  soul !  And  though  the  soul  is  the  absolute  end  of  the 
body,  yet  when  the  body  dies,  the  soul  dies,  for  that  very  reason,  that  it 
is  the  end — when  the  means  go,  the  end  must  of  course  go  !  The  very 
fact  that  the  soul  is  better  than  the  body,  that  the  body  is  nothing  to  it, 
and  is  fit  only  to  be  its  humble  means — that  very  fact,  so  far  from  prov- 
ing the  soul  Immortal,  is  precisely  what  does  prove  and  must  prove,  and 
infallibly  and  overwhelmingly  prove,  it  mortal — and  the  man  is  stone- 
blind  that  can't  see  it !  It  is  a  contradiction  to  talk  about  the  body  being 
the  means,  and  yet  the  soul  living  on — if  the  soul  lives  on,  the  body  is 
not  the  means,  for  when  the  means  are  no  more,  the  end  is  no  more  ! 
You  yourself  suy  that  the  body  dies,  and  then  you  yourself  say  that  the 
soul  must;  for  you  sny  that  the  body  makes  the  soul,  and  even  that  it 
exists  to  !  Beyond  all  cavil,  if  the  soul  is  made,  it  dies  with  what  makes 
it,  or  two  and  two  are  not  four  !  And  then  that  settles  the  question,  and 
forever,  there  is  nothing  more  to  say  !] 

Yes,  it  is  true  of  going  out  as  it  is  of  dying,  that  absolutely,  every  man 
goes  out  when  he  wants  to  go  cut,  and  wants  to  go  out  when  he  does  go 
out — dying  and  going  out  are  one  !  Every  man  lives  as  long  as  he 
want?  to,  for  he  lives  as  long  as  he  lives  to  want  to,  and  then  he  lives  as 
long  as  he  does  live  !  And  every  man  exists  as  long  as  he  wants  to,  for 
he  exists  as  long  as  he  exists  to  want  to,  and  then  he  exists  as  long  as 
lie  does  exist!  First,  it  is  a  man's  harmony  to  exist;  but  afterward,  it 
is  his  harmony  not  to  exist — in  either  case,  he  is  in  harmony.  If  he  did 
not  cease  to  exist,  he  would  not  be  in  harmony  !  It  is  the  very  Universe 
to  man  to  go  out ;  and  what  is  the  Universe  is  his  own  nature,  and  want. 
I:  has  been  the  Universe  to  all  men  to  go  out ;  they  have  lived  not  to, 
an  1  died  not  to ;  but  at  last,  when  they  have  died,  it  has  been  the  whole 
Infinite  Existence  for  them  to  cease — not  to  exist,  instead  of  to  exist ! 
Mature  has  laid  them  all  quietly  to  sleep  ;  and  it  has  been  their  nature 
to  go  to  sleep,  and  so  all  who  have  ever  lived  now  do  sleep  !  So  will 
Mature  lay  all  now  alive,  asleep,  and  they  will  be  glad  to  go  to  sleep — it 
will  be  to  them  the  Universe  ! 

And  so  it  will  be  with  you.  At  last  you  will  loant  to  go  out,  and  be 
glad  to  ;  and  the  very  Happiness  you  have  always  been  fearing  you 
would  lose  by  going  out,  that  very  Happiness  you  will  at  last  find  in 
going  out !  JfST'The  summed-up  Happiness  of  your  whole  Immortality, 
crowded  into  one,  will  consist  in  JVon -Immortality  !  So  you  will  have 
what  you  always  wanted,  and  the  question  is  answered — and  what  can  you 
ever  say  more  ? 

0  !  man,  know  that  the  ages  have  in  store  for  you  the  eternal  fruition 


o/ 

of  all  yonr  hopes  !  You  will  yet  be  Happy,  even  to  the  whole  fill  of 
your  nature  !  You  wanted  Happiness,  and  you  will  have  it ;  you  u-cuittd 
to  be  Happy,  and  you  will  be  !  And  then  le  Happy  !  Be  Happy  as  t'hc(/ 
are  on  those  Worlds,  and  as  these  in  this  shall  yet  become  !  Be  Happy 
now,  and  not  pine  away  your  life  in  longing  for  an  Immortality  to  he 
Happy  in  !  Be  Happy  now,  and  you  will  not  need  an  Immortality  to  be 
Happy  in ! 

Now  you  see  your  life-long  mistake,  the  perfect  secret  of  all  your 
misery  at  the  thought  of  not  being  Immortal  !  You  have  wanted  to  lx- 
Happy  ;  and  because  now,  your  Happiness  consisted  in  existing  and  being 
Happy,  therefore  you  have  thought  it  always  would  consist  in  existing 
and  being  Happy — you  have  thought  if  you  did  riot  exist,  you  of  course 
could  not  be  Happy  !  But  you  have  forgotten,  both  that  if  you  did  no:. 
exist,  you  would  not  then  wish  to  be  Happy,  and  therefore  would  not  b> 
£7/ihappy  in  not  existing,  (as  you  now  are,  in  the  prospect  of  not  exist- 
ing,) and  also,  that  the  very  act  of  ceasing  to  exist,  would  le  your  Hap- 
piness, because  at  last  you  would  ivish  to  cease  to  ex'usi !  First,  whuu 
you  no  longer  exist,  it  will  be  all  over  !  It  will  be  as  if  you  never  had 
existed  !  80  it  will  be  as  if  you  now  did  not  wish  to  exist — as  if  you 
never  had  so  wished  !  So  you  will  be  no  more  Unhappy  in  not  existing 
than  if  you  did  not  now  wish  to  exist — than  if  you  never  had  so  wish.!-/'!  ! 
So  you  will  not  be  Unhappy  at  all — you  will  not  be  sujferiny  anything  ! 
And  neither  will  you  be  so  much  as  losing  anything  !  For  you  will  nut 
be  in  existence  to  lose  anything  !  It  \\ill  be  as  long  as  it  is  broad,  that, 
you  will  not  suffer,  nor  wish,  nor  lose,  nor  do  anything  else,  nor  will 
anything  else  be  true  of  you,  nor  will  even  anything  b>-  trm-  of  you — 
JKP~because  there  will  be  no  you!  The  simple  fact  of  non-existence  will 
square  and  balance  everything.  AH  will  be  straightened  out,  perfectly 
right  then.  But  also,  sinking  in'.o  this  non-existence,  will  be  your  abso- 
lute and  true  Happiness!  Precisely  that  is  what  will  cintstdu'e  your 
Happiness.  You  would  not  at  last  be  Happy  without  becoming  non- 
existent!  For  you  will  want  to  become  non-existent,  it  will  be}<uir 
nature  to  become  so.  You  will  not  be  able  to  do  anything  else,  and  so 
you  will  not  wish  to  do  anything  else  !  But  your  whole  being  will  sink 
to  the  level  of  doing  that,  and  so  you  will  wish  to  do  that  !  And  then  it 
will  gratify  you  to  do  it,  satisfy  you  to  do  it  !  Truly  it  \\i\\Jill  you  to  do 
it — be  just  all  you  long  for — be  your  very  bliss — be  your  perfect  heaven  ! 
So  that,  instead  of  non-existence  depriving  you  of  Happiness,  as  you 
have  always  supposed,  it  will  be  the  very  thing  that  will  give  you  Hap- 
piness, and  all  that  then  could  be  Happiness  to  you  !  iSo  far  from  deny- 
ing you  Happiness,  it  will  complete  your  Happiness — it  will  make  you  as 
Happy  as  you  can  be  !  For  that  is  absolutely  it,  against  the  world,  that 
at  last  every  one  human  being — every  man  and  woman  and  child  on  the 

flobe — is  as  Happy  as  he  can  be  ;  enjoys  all  that  is  possible  to  him  ; 
rinks  in  all  he  is  capable  of;  equals  the  perfect  want  of  his  nature,  see- 
ing he  thus  does  the  only  thing  that  is  his  nature  !  Every  man  has  in 
the  end,  all  he  can  have  ;  and  then  what  more  could  there  be  for  him  ? 
And  every  man  has  in  the  end,  all  he  even  desires  ;  and  then  what  more- 
could  there  be  for  him  ?  But  you  have  never  thought  uf  all  this,  and 
even  now  it  may  seem  nothing  to  you.  Even  now  you  may  think  it  but 


58 

a  quibble  to  say  that  if  a  man  goes  out,  he  will  be  Happy  in  going  out — 
even  as  Happy  as  he  can  be — simply  because  he  has  to  go,  because  he 
can't  do  anything  else  !  But  indeed,  that  is  the  very  point;  and  pre- 
cisely there  is  where  you  are  mistaken,  and  where  you  have  always  been 
mistaken  :  and  precisely  that  mistake  has  always  underlain  your  insisting 
on  the  doctrine  of  Immortality,  and  it  underlies  the  whole  world's  insist- 
ing on  that  doctrine  to-day  !  The  whole  demand  for  Immortality  is  based 
on  Happiness  ;  and  Happiness  is  but  the  gratification  of  man's  nature — 
not  his  nature  now,  but  his  nature  at  the  time  it  is  to  be  gratified  ;  and 
then  when  man  comes  to  die,  if  it  is  his  nature  to  go  out,  it  will  be  the 
gratification  of  his  nature  to  go  out,  and  then  it  will  be  his  Happiness  to 
go  out — his  perfect  Happiness,  all  the  Happiness  possible  to  him,  all  the 
Happiness  he  then  desires  :  and  if  all  this  is  so,  then  there  is  no  more  talk 
of  Immortality,  because  you  already  have  the  Happiness!  What  you 
wanted,  you  have,  and  then  you  don't  want  anything  more  !  And  what 
you  did  want,  seeing  there  is  no  longer  any  reason  for  it,  you  now  don't 
want !  The  Happiness  is  already  real,  insured  to  every  man  and  woman 
and  child  on  the  globe — and  that  answers  all  objections,  and  settles  the 
whole  question  ! 

And  then  all  you  can  say  is,  that  even  allowing  all  this,  still  there 
could  be  more  Happiness  if  a  man  did  not  go  out,  for  then  he  would  exist 
to  be  capable  of  more.  But  that  is  the  very  thing,  that  he  can't  exist, 
but  he  must  go  out !  That  is  just  what  this  whole  argument  against  Im- 
mortality has  been  to  prove,  and  has  proved  !  And  then,  if  you  think  it 
at  least  a  pity  that  a  man  cannot  thus  have  more  Happiness,  by  living  on 
instead  of  going  out,  yet  remember  that  I  have  shown  you  that  almost 
all  men  will  enjoy  more,  even  to  a  Happiness  that  shall  be  perfect  while 
they  are  yet  in  existence  ;  (instead  of  only  a  Happiness  made  perfect  by 
ceasing  from  existence,)  and  that  you  and  all  those  living  now  are  only 
exceptions  in  having  to  go  out  without  enjoying  more.  Hereafter,  men 
will  enjoy  all  the  Happiness  they  can  while  they  are  yet  alive  ;  and  you 
and  we  all,  now,  do  not,  only  because  this  is  yet  the  infancy  of  the 
world — all  we  are  the  few  and  not  the  many,  the  exception  and  not  the 
rule.  And  also  remember,  that  in  that  future  they  will  enjoy  so  much 
Happiness,  that  instead  of  wanting  more,  they  would  at  last  want  to  go 
out,  with  even  a  different  desire  from  that  with  which  we  shall  in  the  end 
want  to  !  We  shall  all  want  to,  because  there  is  nothing  else  for  us  ;  but 
they  would  want  to,  because  they  had  already  enjoyed  all  Happiness — not 
only  could  there  be  no  more  to  them,  but  the  monotonous  possession  of 
what  they  had  would  become  intolerable  !  You  do  not  think  so  now,  but 
if  you  could  try  it  once,  you  would  find  that  Eternity  Avas  "  almighty" 
long  !  Though,  if  still  you  find  fault  with  the  fate  which  thus  cuts  you 
off  from  more  Happiness,  yet  your  quarrel  is  with  the  Universe,  and  not 
with  me  !  And  likewise,  if  you  will  have  it  that  you  ought  to  live  on 
forever,  and  thus  be  strictly  Immortal,  yet  why  do  you  not  equally  de- 
mand that  you  already  should  have  lived  forever — that  you  should  be 
Eternal  as  well  as  Immortal  ?  If  you  will  lose  all  the  future,  so  you 
have  lost  all  the  past ;  and  if  in  the  past,  you  did  not  know  what  you 
were  losing,  so  in  the  future  you  will  not  know  ;  and  if  now  you  know 
what  you  will  lose,  so  you  now  know  what  you  have  lost — the  cases  are  the 


59 

same,  and  you  ought  to  be  praying  to  be  Eternal,  as  well  as  sighing  to  be 
Immortal !  As  also,  if  thus  it  is  proved  that  as  a  matter  of  fact,  simple 
non-existence  will  in  the  end  be  perfect  Happiness  to  you — if,  when  you 
come  to  die  (and  then  go  out,)  you  will  be  as  Happy  as  you  can  be — 
then  if  you  want  more  Happiness,  there  is  a  plain  and  open  road  to  find 
it !  jJ5?"It  is  at  once  to  throw  up  this  whole  thing  of  Immortality  !  As 
you  live,  Immortality  is  the  only  trouble  !  For  perfect  Happiness  at 
last,  and  yet  more  Happiness,  must  necessitate  more  Happiness  between 
now  and  at  last !  And  then  the  way  to  have  more  Happiness,  is  to  have 
more  now,  and  all  along  !  Seeing  the  Happiness  will  be  perfect  at  death, 
the  way  is  to  make  it  perfect  while  you  live  !  But  the  very  thing  which 
most  of  all  keeps  you  from  making  it  perfect  while  you  live,  is  this  self- 
same longing  and  striving  to  be  Immortal — this  eternally  hunting  and 
chasing  after  Happiness  in  the  future,  and  so,  utterly  neglecting  Happi- 
ness now — and  then  after  all,  and  absolutely,  this  wasting  your  perfect 
life  and  throwing  your  entire  self  away  on  something  beside  Happiness  ! 
Still  once  more,  and  now  with  an  infinite  emphasis,  it  is  Immortality  that 
stands  in  your  way  !  Then  give  that  up,  and  devote  yourself  to  no-w,  to 
life — and  to  being  Happy  in  life  !  You  will  be  Happy  in  death  ;  then  be 
Happy  in  life,  and  you  will  be  all  Happy  !  You  will  have  perfect  Hap- 
piness in  death  ;  then  have  Happiness  till  then,  and  you  will  have  mure 
Happiness  !  j£3rlnsane  to  cling  to  Immortality  for  more — the  very  thing 
that  prevents  more  ! 

For  indeed,  however  you  may  have  heretofore,  placed  all  your  Happi- 
ness in  Immortality,  your  now  knowing  that  you  are  not  Immortal,  will 
not  at  all  lessen  that  Happiness,  but  on  the  contrary,  increase  it — as  has 
just  appeared.  If  you  are  not  Immortal,  it  is  because  it  will  not  be  your 
nature  to  be  ;  and  if  it  will  not  be  your  nature  to  be,  then  it  will  not  be 
your  want  to  be,  nor  then  your  harmony,  nor  your  Happiness,  to  be  :  just 
as,  if  you  were  Immortal,  it  would  be  because  it  would  be  your  nature  to  be, 
and  then  your  want  and  harmony  and  Happiness,  to  be.  So  that  you 
are  still  going  to  be  in  harmony,  just  as  much  as  if  you  were  Immortal  ; 
and  then  it  will  make  no  difference  !  Or  rather,  it  will  make  a  difference  ; 
for  then,  to  be  Immortal,  against  this  great  fate,  would  be  not  to  be  in 
harmony  !  And  if  you  are  not  Immortal,  it  is  because  it  is  the  Universe 
that  you  are  not ;  and  what  is  the  Universe,  is  all  that  can  be  nature  to 
you — the  harmony  of  the  Universe  must  be  your  harmony  !  And  then 
again,  not  being  Immortal  will  make  no  difference,  for  still  you  will  be 
in  harmony  !  And  then  knowing  yourself  not  Immortal  can  make  no 
difference  ;  for  it  will  still  be  knowing  yourself  in  harmony  !  Or  if  you 
have  doub's  on  this  whole  subject — if  you  are  neither  assured  that  you 
are  Immortal,  nor  yet  that  you  are  not — if  you  know  not  for  yourself 
what  is  true — nevertheless,  that  shall  not  occasion  you  any  Unhappiness, 
for  it  will  still  make  no  difference  !  It  will  be  alike  well  to  you,  whether 
you  are,  or  are  not,  Immortal ;  for  equally,  you  will  be  in  harmony  !  .,  Or 
if  you  still  and  longingly  hope  that  you  are  Immortal,  yet  even  then,  all 
that  I  have  said,  need  not  and  should  not  give  you  the  least  uneasiness  ; 
for  all  I  have  said  don't  alter  the  case  any,  all  I  have  said  don't  change 
the  fact !  Believing  oneself  Immortal  will  not  make  him  so,  and  believ- 
ing the  opposite  will  not  make  him  not  so  ;  and  then,  no  more  does  dis- 


60 

proving  Immortality  make  it  not  so  !  What  is,  is,  irrespective  of  even  its 
proof;  the  proof  shows  it,  but  does  not  make  it.  So  my  proving  you 
not  Immortal  does  not  make  it  so,  but  still  it  is  all  as  if  I  had  not  proved 
it !  And  then  it  should  not  distress  you ;  much  more,  if  you  are  not 
satisfied  that  I  have  proved  it !  Or  if,  once  more,  you  still  feel  that  you 
know  that  you  are  Immortal,  then  certainly  I  have  not  harmed  you,  and 
you  will  be  as  Happy  as  before  !  So  that  all  those  now  living,  Avill  not  be 
injured  by  this  proclamation  of  Non-Immortality — not  be  made  Unhappy 
by  it — be  they  those  who  are  convinced  by  the  demonstration,  be  they 
those  who  doubt,  be  they  those  who  anxiously  and  painfully  long,  or  be 
they  those  who  claim  that  they  know  the  opposite.  And  the  proclama- 
tion will  not  be  ungrateful  to  those  in  the  future,  but  on  the  contrary, 
welcome  and  joyful ;  for  they  will  all  know  it  to  be  truth,  and  be 
willing  it  should  be  truth,  and  glad  it  should  be — for  they  will  know  that 
what  is  truth  is  what  is  best !  So  that  everyway,  everything  is  right, 
and  nothing  is  wrong,  and  nobody  has  anything  to  do  but  to  be  Happy — 
nobody  has  anything  to  stand  in  the  way  of  his  being  Happy  ! 

Then  I  will  once  more  enforce  consolation  and  relief  upon  you.  0  ! 
lonely,  sorrow-stricken  soul,  pining  under  all  woes  here,  and  fearing  no 
Future  to  give  you  joy  and  rest  hereafter — 0  !  sad  and  sinking  one, 
thus  daily  dying  to  be  Happy,  but  daily  mocked  in  that  dying — listen  to 
this  voice  which  comes  to  infuse  into  your  bosom  courage  and  hope,  this 
voice  which  comes,  to  pour  into  your  heart  healing  and  balm  !  You  will 
yet  be  Happy,  even  as  Happy  as  you  ever  sighed  to  be  1  All  you  desire 
will  yet  come  to  you,  all  of  which  you  are  at  last  capable  shall  be  yours  ! 
Nature  will  end  all  your  sorrow  with  an  infinite  joy,  the  joy  of  entering 
into  rest !  Heaven  will  come  to  you,  the  very  heaven  you  have  always 
longed  for,  the  heaven  of  being  met  and  filled  !  It  will  be  perfect  eostacy, 
to  melt  away  into  that  great  and  everlasting  Satisfying !  Then  you  will 
be  Happy,  even  so  that  you  can  ask  no  more,  nor  hold  any  more  !  And 
then  be  Happy  now.  Dry  up  your  tears,  and  henceforth  only  rejoice, 
for  you  are  saved !  As,  when  one  is  exhausted,  it  is  sweet  for  him  to 
sink  into  the  embrace  of  sleep,  and  go  back  to  unconsciousness ;  and 
as,  at  the  close  of  life,  it  is  sweet  for  a  man  to  lie  down  to  his  last  sleep, 
and  give  his  body  back  to  the  elements  ;  so,  when  the  end  comes  to  you, 
it  will  be  sweet  tor  you  to  lie  down  to  an  eternal  sleep,  and  give  your  soul 
back  to  the  Universe  !  It  will  be  sweet,  and  then  it  will  be  all  you  want, 
and  then  all  is  well !  The  agony  is  over,  for  the  redemption  has  come  ! 

0  !  then  forever,  soul,  weep  no  more  ! 

And,  0  !  world,  groaning  and  despairing  to  be  Immortal,  and  through 
all  these  long  centuries  refusing  tobe  comforted  except  in  that  pros- 
pect—0  !  world,  weep  no  more  ! 

[Though  really,  it  is  preposterously  unreasonable,  and  perfectly  insane, 
all  this  great  fear  of  going  out !  Why,  you  do  go  out,  every  night ! 
And  does  it  hurt  you  any  !  Isn't  it  the  very  thing  you  want  to  do  ? 
And  you  were  out,  that  whole  Eternity  !  You  never  were  in  !  And  did 
it  make  a  bit  of  difference  ?  Why  don't  you  mourn  and  cry  over  that  ? 
And  then  hereafter,  when  you  are  out,  what  difference  will  it  make  ? 
You  want  to  exist  now,  and  so  now,  you  do  exist !  And  you  will  want  to 
exist  as  long  as  you  live,  and  so  as  long  as  you  live  you  will  exist !  And 


61 

after  that,  you  won't  want  to,  and  so  you  won't!  And  the  ceasing  :o 
live  will  be  natural  to  you,  and  the  only  thing  that  will  be  natural  !  Jt-'o 
that  going  out  won't  hurt  you' beforehand,  nor  afterward,  nor  oven  at  the 
time — and  then  it  is  just  the  thing  all  round,  and  the  only  thing  !  TK-ie 
is  not  a  shadow  of  foundation  for  being  afraid  of  it !  It  is  nothing  hut  n, 
silly  whim,  of  folks  who  have  never  used  their  brains  !  It  is  as  perfect 
a  bugbear,  as  the  old  Hell  itself!  Then  come  to  your  senses,  and  av,-tv 
wirh  it.] 

But  so,  the  argument  is  at  length  complete;  for  that  was  the  only 
thing  to  be  done,  to  show  that  all  would  be  finally  and  perfectly  Happy— 
that  was  all  there  was  need  to  provide  for,  your  Happiness  and  that  of 
the  rest  living  before  the  Good  Time  Coming  !  jSSTJSo  that  now  there  is 
even  a  perfect  rationale  for  Tern-Immortality,  and  then  there  cannot  pos- 
sibly be  any  for  Immortality — not  one  argument  for  it,  not  one  even  seem- 
ing in  its  favor  !  And  then  the  Race,  who  have  sought  their  good  t/.'/'/cr- 
where,  and  hereafter,  must  come  to  find  it  now,  and  here. 

This  World  is  our  Home.  "  Here  we  have  our  abiding-place,  and  this 
is  our  continuing  city."  We  are  not  "  pilgrims  and  sojourners,  as  ail 
our  fathers  were;"  but  we  have  come  in  time  to  know,  that  vriilv 
we  are  the  Earth's,  and  that  the  Earth  is  ours  !  We  are  its  Childivn, 
and  then  its  true  Citizens ;  and  our  perpetual  inheritance  is  in  it,  and 
not  in  "  the  skies."  Our  Heaven  is  here,  our  Eternity  is  now,  our 
utter  All  is  life.  Then  let  us  live,  and  do  nothing  else  —  live  use, 
beauty,  enjoyment,  Happiness  —  live  greatness,  nobleness,  perfection, 
destiny  !  And  let  us  make  the  Earth,  Home — as  Immortalitv  lir.s 
never  allowed  it  to  be  Home  to  us  yet  !  Then  men  can  be  Happy, 
when  they  ratify  Great  Nature's  decree  giving  them  this  smiiiii"* 
Planet ! 

But  time  fails  to  say  all,  or  half,  that  still  presses,  though  the  ra- 
tionale is  already  perfect;  but  everything  will  yet  be  made  transparent  to 
man,  and  Nature  does  forever  make  it  so  to  all  in  the  final  result  ! 

And  nothing  c?  n  possibly  account  for  men's  ever  having  believed  hi 
this  so-impossible  doctrine — believed  in  Immortality  in  the  face  of  all  this 
evidence — except  the  fact  that  this  has  always  been,  and  it  is  yet,  a  baby- 
world  !  For  that  is  indeed  it,  that  on  every  Planet  in  the  infinite  Uni- 
verse, at  first  men  believe  in  Gods,  and  Religions,  and  Immortalities  :  but 
afterward,  equally  on  every  Planet,  they  grow  out  of  these  old  faiths, 
into  the  true  light  of  Reason  and  Nature  !  The  bali/-n\en  believe  in 
fables,  but  the  progressed  men  believe  in  facts. 

[And  then  God,  Religion  and  Immortality  are  nothing  but  •'  institu- 
itons,"  and  I  denounce  the  "  institutions  !"] 

And  so,  (and  now  at  last,)  men  will  one  day  grow  out  of  Immortality, 
into  something  higher,  Now— and  then  Happiness  now,  and  not  in  it — 
and  themselves,  and  they  sufficient  for  themselves,  and  not  having  to  run 
off  to  it  for  succor  and  strengthening  and  satisfying  :  for  Immortality  is 
still  Reliyion,  that  same  running  away  from  earth  and  men  and  things  of 
men,  after  phantoms  and  spirits  and  fancies  and  all  fooleries — it  is  still 
the  same  silliness  and  superstition,  even  up  to  Spiritualists  and  Infidels  ! 
But  all  shall  cease  ;  and  men,  henceforth  only  earthly,  shall  ripen  into 
such  excelling  Happiness  and  glory  and  perfection,  as  we  have  no  power 


62 

to  express,  but  which  when  we  would  feebly  set  forth,  we  can  only  say 
heaven,  first  borrowed  from  that  old  lie,  indeed,  but  still  coming  home  to 
the  heart  as  touching  and  even  beautiful,  though  those  who  come  after 
us,  may  give  it  up  also,  and  blot  it  out  forever  !  [Like  soul,  spirit,  holy, 
salvation,  redemption,  and  all  the  rest.] 

And  when  thus,  the  world  shall  give  up  Immortality,  to  know  it  no 
more,  but  shall  hide  it  away  with  those  two  others  that  have  gone  before — 
God  and  Religion  and  Eternal  World  together — to  perish  out  of  mind : 
when  all  the  ravening  wolves  that  have  wasted  the  Earth's  fair  heritage, 
shall  be  destroyed  in  one — then  will  men  lift  up  their  voice  and  say,  that 
now  the  World's  redemption  has  indeed  fully  come  ! 


What  a  Rationale  !  And  of  All-things  !  Equally  taking  in  all  Past, 
all  Present,  all  To-Come  !  Weaving  Eternity  and  Infinity  into  one  trans- 
parent web  of  Truth  !  A  work  done  for  the  Race,  that  shall  never  need 
to  be  done  again  !  Everything  cleared  up,  and  written  out  for  all  com- 
ing Time  ! 

0  !  World,  World,  World  !  here  is  thy  work.  It  is  the  deed  that 
calls  to-day  !  Wait  not  for  the  world  that  is  to  follow,  [this  same  human 
world  in  after  generations,]  but  thou  for  thyself  arise,  and  accept  this 
Truth  !  Throw  away  thy  old  follies  ;  bury  all  thy  dead  ;  give  thy  hand 
to  what  will  make  thy  mortals  blessed,  and  usher  in  this  true  Age  of 
Reason  ! 


So,  farewell,  Thomas  Paine  !  Not  all  thy  burning  words  to  the  world 
can  avail,  till  men  go  beyond,  and  strike  down  this  Holy  Trinity,  God, 
Religion,  and  Immortality  !  But  thou  hast  done  thy  part  to  bring  even 
all !  Thou  hast  led  the  way,  and  another  has  but  followed  thee  ! 


63 


Only  a  part  of  the  foregoing  Oration  could  be  delivered,  on  the  special  occasion  ; 
and  even  the  purpose  of  continuing  and  finishing  the  delivery  afterward,  by  adjourn- 
ment, was  frustrated. 


Though  the  preceding  Rationale  may  be  said  to  involve  everything,  it  is  infinitely 
far  from  containing  it.  Even  necessary  justice  to  a  Superstition  which  lias  ruled  tin- 
world  through  so  many  thousand  years,  cannot  be  done  in  a  tract — it  requires  a 
Volume.  Such  a  Volume,  therefore,  will  be  issued,  as  soon  as  lean  find  time  to 
complete  it.  It  will  embody  what  is  given  here,  though  serving  little  more  than 
the  purpose  of  introduction  and  proposition  ;  and  likewise,  as  much  more  i<  already 
prepared.  The  Work  will  embrace,  among  other  special  features,  a  demonstration 
of  what  the  human  soul  is,  having  nothing  in  common  with  anything  in  this  Ora- 
tion, and  even  superseding  the  strict  letter  of  this  text  in  three  or  four  instances.  It 
will  be  an  attempt  to  reduce  the  whole  question  of  the  soul  to  absolute  science,  and 
will  be  illustrated  with  nearly  a  hundred  engravings,  to  demonstrate  the  actual  truth 
to  the  eye — as  giving  the  fact,  the  proof,  and  the  explanation,  all  in  one.  The  Work 
will  also. contain  a  Reply  to  the  argument  of  Andrew  Jackson  Davis  in  support  of 
Immortality,  in  the  last  Volume  of  the  Great  Harmonia  ; '  as  well  as,  in  general' 
a  Reply  to  all  that  Mr.  Davis  has  ever  written.  Spiritualism  will  also  come  in, 
for  a  distinct  and  comprehensive  refutation. 

Till  this  future  publication,  I  must  leave  what  is  presented  here,  open  to  objections 
from  both  friends  and  foes.  In  particular,  I  must  leave  that  hypothesis,  of  the  outer 
Planets  being  given  off  from  the  Sun  first,  to  whatever  exceptions  any  may  choose  to 
take  to  it.  There  is  something  to  be  said  on  that  subject,  different  from  what  has 
ever  yet  been  said.  But  even  allowing  that  hypothesis  to  be  incorrect,  it  will  not 
diminish,  in  hardly  an  appreciable  degree,  the  force  of  the  argument  proving  that  as 
a  whole  the  Universe  is  Happy  :  for  all  Planets  must  yet  be  Happy  longer  than  they 
are  Unhappy — their  age  being  longer  than  their  infancy — besides  that  the  Suns  are 
themselves  nothing  but  Planets,  (even  according  to  the  most  eminent  Astronomers,) 
and  therefore  their  long  and  inconceivable  Happiness  is  to  be  added  to  that  of  all 
the  others  !  Once  grant  Progression  and  Destiny,  for  the  Earth,  and  then  admit 
Universal  Analogy,  and  nothing  can  prevent  the  conclusion  I  have  reached — that, 
the  Universe  is  all  one  Infinite  Perfection  ! 


UCSB 


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